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The leading pharmacy bodies have come together to launch the 'Save Our Pharmacies' campaign which highlights the pressure and untapped potential of the sector. Pharmacy bodies- Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp), Company Chemists' Association (CCA), National Pharmacy Association (NPA) and Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) have agreed to work together on a programme of activities to lobby for fair NHS funding for pharmacies in England, including co-ordinating efforts to mobilise public support. The campaign will focus on highlighting both the pressures that pharmacies are under and the huge untapped potential of the sector - including to offer a Pharmacy First service - if appropriate resourcing is made available. Mark Lyonette, NPA Chief executive, said: "Together we will be cranking up the noise to persuade Government and NHS to make the right choices and back the community pharmacy sector with decent funding. Maintaining patient and public support is critical to our campaigning success, so this will be a key focus in the months ahead. Our joint message is very clear: pharmacies can help get the NHS back on its feet, but not while the sector itself is on its knees." The pharmacy bodies will develop shared resources for effective parliamentary lobbying and mobilising public opinion, in the face of chronic underfunding that threatens further pharmacy closures. They will also work hard to show off the value of pharmacy and to continue pushing for a fully funded Pharmacy First service.

As we transition in England through yet another NHS organisational change, I ask myself what does this mean for community pharmacy? I would like to think that this change will bring about opportunity and a chance for community pharmacy to showcase and continue the excellent work that was carried out during the height of the pandemic and is still ongoing today. I hope that it allows community pharmacy to be regarded as part of the NHS rather than sitting on the side lines. This change has to lead to better funding for community pharmacy, without sufficient funding we will see more pharmacies close. We are hearing a lot about winter pressures but this year it feels like all year round pressure. What I have seen, whilst the NHS is under such pressure, is North East London (NEL) CCG transitioning to an integrated care board (ICB) almost seamlessly. I have seen people transitioning into new roles, whilst working hard to ensure that all plates are still spinning, which at the moment is no mean feat. I spent a day out recently visiting pharmacies with the chief medical officer of NHS NEL, Dr Paul Gilluley. The visits were positive, we felt listened to and understood. The feedback was great, it was recognised that community pharmacy is often the informal front door to the NHS and that we have so much to offer in terms of ill health prevention. Community pharmacy can offer a total solution as long as we have the tools to do so, which can save so much time and money. An example is the GP CPCS service, which has launched well across NEL.

The community pharmacy bodies, along with England's largest pharmacy chains, have urged the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak to resolve fund and workforce crisis in the sector. In the joint letter the Chief Executives of Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp), Company Chemists' Association (CCA), National Pharmacy Association (NPA) and Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC), along with Boots, Lloydspharmacy, Well and Rowlands Pharmacy, said they are pleased to see Government now recognising the key role that community pharmacy' could have in alleviating the strain on other NHS services. However, the associations also warn that although the sector is ready to support, 'this will not be possible unless pharmacy is properly funded.' Janet Morrison, PSNC Chief Executive, said: "The Prime Minister should also know that community pharmacies are also facing a crisis. They need sustainable investment, urgently, if we are to avoid devasting consequences for pharmacies and for their patients." The letter calls on Government to help pharmacy to resolve the funding, workforce and capacity issues engulfing the sector. It said: "Community pharmacies are in crisis and after 7 years of 30% funding cuts have reached their limit."

A winter NHS crisis is inevitable unless the government acts now to reverse the worrying decline in community pharmacies. Years of government underfunding could see 3,000 pharmacies in England - around a third of the network - having no option but to shut their doors to patients in the next few years. That figure is based on independent assessments from Ernst & Young and UCL/LSE healthcare professors: it is not scaremongering - it is the reality the country faces. Fifty per cent of pharmacies are already in financial distress because government funding has been falling in real terms since 2019 and that figure is predicted to rise to 75 per cent within the next two years. The government needs to act now and invest in pharmacy or sleepwalk into a healthcare disaster as we have seen with access to dentistry care. Prescription volumes have risen consistently year-on-year by roughly 2 per cent which means fewer pharmacies doing more work and under greater pressure than a decade ago. Ten years ago around 11,200 pharmacies in England were dispensing roughly 79,000 prescriptions; nowadays around 11,500 are dispensing roughly 89,000 prescriptions. The secretary of state recently asked pharmacy to do more to avoid a winter NHS crisis and at the same time said there will be no new money to pay for those additional services. This at a time when the network is in decline with random unplanned pharmacy closures - 640 closures since 2016 - and pharmacy staff face huge workload pressures as prescription demand is increasing year-on-year. The government's approach to pharmacy literally does not add up: the pharmacy contract is not fit-for-purpose now let alone dealing with a NHS winter crisis.

In its response to NHS England's consultation on 'the future of vaccination services', the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has suggested that a wider range of NHS vaccinations being available from community pharmacies could support the achievement of increased vaccination levels. PSNC said: "Any additional services that contractors could provide can only be considered with additional remuneration above the current global sum in the community pharmacy contractual framework to ensure that the services are adequately resourced." Alastair Buxton, director of NHS Services at PSNC, said: "We've always known, and the evidence supports this, that community pharmacies are one of the most popular and accessible places for people to receive a range of vaccinations. "The NHS was slow to take advantage of this at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, so we welcome this consultation from them to bring together a wide range of views on the topic. "In the longer-term, if the right funding and support is in place, many pharmacies could help deliver a much wider range of NHS vaccination programmes - giving the public the convenience and service that they want, and taking pressure off our general practice colleagues. It makes perfect sense, and we look forward to the NHS response to this consultation."

The NHS has signed the first-of-its-kind subscription deal for two antimicrobial drugs - cefiderocol and ceftazidime-avibactam, manufactured by Shionogi and Pfizer respectively - that will help around 1700 patients per year with severe bacterial infections. Under this deal, pharmaceutical firms will receive a fixed yearly fee - capped at a level that represents value to taxpayers - in order to incentivise funding for innovation that can generate a pipeline of new antibiotics for NHS patients. NHS said the deal will help patients with serious infections that have evolved so much that antibiotics and other current treatments are no longer effective can be given a potentially life-saving alternative. The drugs will provide a lifeline to patients with life-threatening infections like sepsis, hospital or ventilator pneumonia and blood stream infection. Announcing the deal at NHS ConfedExpo, NHS Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard called the revolutionary subscription deal a game-changer and the latest NHS success in using its commercial power to benefit NHS patients in line with the NHS Long Term Plan. "Superbug-busting drugs on the NHS will save lives and strike a blow in the global battle against antimicrobial resistance," Pritchard said.

A policy brief, developed by researchers from the University of Bath and University of Strathclyde with funding from Sigma Pharmaceuticals, has recommended the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS to increase community pharmacy funding to avoid damaging closures and diminution of quality. The report launched on Wednesday (12 June) at an event in the House of Commons, attended by Members of Parliament, senior policymakers and the pharmacy industry, analysed community pharmacy policies and spoke to stakeholders to explore their opinions of the future of community pharmacy. It was found that patients value their community pharmacies, but staff feel demotivated, insecure and undervalued. Stakeholders and policies suggested that in the future, medicines should be supplied by automated 'hub and spoke' dispensing, enabling community pharmacy staff to provide services that relieve pressure on GP surgeries, such as long-term conditions management, urgent care and public health.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Pharmacy published a new report on Monday (January 23) that calls for "urgent action" to relieve funding pressure so there are "opportunities" for community pharmacy teams to deliver even more for their patients. The report highlights the need for a new "strategic vision" for pharmacy and highlights opportunities for the network to be empowered to deliver even more for patients. However, the manifesto also underlines that there are the very real risks that this opportunity may be lost if significant and ongoing pressures are not addressed. The recommendations are based on written and oral evidence gathered from frontline pharmacists, GPs, professional bodies and healthcare experts. To harness the potential of pharmacy, the report recommends the Government must take urgent action to relieve the funding pressures on the community pharmacy sector in the short term and review the long-term funding model for pharmacy. It also suggested the Government must harness the power of pharmacy to help the NHS deal with the COVID-19 backlog and the UK's growing healthcare challenges. It further recommended that future commissioning and funding must recognise that community pharmacy is the front door to the NHS for many patients.

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) is calling on NHS England and its member to pause and reflect before further implementing the pharmacy contraception service. NPA board met on Tuesday (25 April) to discuss the Pharmacy Contraception Service and the board decided that - with the community pharmacy sector at breaking point - it cannot support the immediate roll out of this service. The association believes that with no new funding for the service, and all existing funds in effect already allocated to other pharmacy activity, any payments to the sector for delivery of the oral contraception service will ultimately be clawed back by NHS England. Tweeting after the meeting yesterday, the NPA said: "We can't tell pharmacy owners what they can and can't do. But we can tell them the facts; fact number one is that with no new funding currently available everyone will be a loser from the implementation of this service on the current terms." NPA Vice-Chair Jay Badenhorst added: "We cannot be expected to take on more and more services without the increase in funding necessary to deliver them effectively. Meanwhile, taking on additional work when current workload already exceeds capacity risks impacting negatively on the overall quality of care people experience in pharmacies. We still believe this could, in future, be a great new pharmacy service, but not without the extra funding necessary to deliver it safely and effectively. We want to offer women this extra support, but if it's worth doing it's worth doing properly."

"We need to fix the front door to our NHS by investing in community pharmacy," asserts Daisy Cooper as more and more pharmacies "worry about the future of their business." Reflecting on the challenges faced by pharmacists during the pandemic, she emphasised their pivotal role in launching vaccination schemes across communities and the larger role pharmacies play in complementing traditional NHS facilities. Cooper recalls her collaboration with local pharmacies in St. Albans, where she worked hand in glove with them to address challenges faced by pharmacists to obtain information from NHS England regarding protocols and procedures. She told Pharmacy Business reporter that she had to work out something "hand in glove to help them get those vaccinated schemes up and running, as pharmacies were desperate to take part in the vaccination scheme" in her constituency. Describing their unique selling point (USP), Cooper emphasised the convenience and immediacy of pharmacies located in high street areas and warned that pharmacy closures "should be a real wake up call for the government."

Keith Ridge, who retired from the role of England's chief pharmaceutical officer this month, has written to the NHS regional directors regarding a package to empower community pharmacies to implement clinical services in their integrated care systems. Though details about this letter are not available, Malcolm Harrison, chief executive officer of the Company Chemists' Association, welcomed the move saying: "It is a positive step towards the greater integration of community pharmacy care into the NHS. "It is vital for the NHS that patients can benefit from the clinical care services set out in the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework." Harrison, however, highlighted that while pharmacies are being pushed to do more, the efforts to introduce new clinical services should be supported with "sustainable funding and material actions to increase workforce numbers in the sector." "We are concerned that without the funding and people in place, the desired volume of necessary services cannot be delivered, no matter how well coordinated."

Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting outlined his plans for NHS reform on Friday (21 April), where he also mentioned a desire to see pharmacies take on more workload and pharmacists' clinical skills to be better utilised. In his speech, he also expressed concern at warnings from the pharmacy sector and pharmacy closures. The Company Chemists' Association (CCA) appreciated Shadow Health Secretary's desire to enhance pharmacies' role in primary care reform but also stated that the sector is in urgently needs a funding injection. Dr. Nick Thayer, Head of Policy at the Company Chemists' Association (CCA) comment: "We are pleased to see the Shadow Health Secretary recognise the enhanced role that pharmacies should play in primary care reform. Mr Streeting wants to see care brought closer to people's homes and more front doors into the NHS. With 89.2% of the population located within a 20-minute walk of a pharmacy, pharmacies do just that. They are essential to realising his vision of a 'neighbourhood health service'. Pharmacies could free up over 42m GP appointments annually, including 10m vaccination appointments. Urgent same-day appointments for minor conditions in pharmacies will immediately benefit patients by increasing GP access. The first step is for the Government to immediately commission a fully-funded Pharmacy First service in England.

The Conservative Party Prime Ministerial candidate Rishi Sunak visited Bassett Pharmacy in Southampton on Wednesday (Aug 24) - the pharmacy that used to be run by his family. During the visit, Sunak is reported to have said that he intends to reform the NHS and achieve value for money from health spending, should he become prime minister. Giving his reaction to the visit, National Pharmacy Association (NPA) chief executive Mark Lyonette said: "If Rishi Sunak is serious about NHS reform, he would do well to start with a 'pharmacy first' approach to prevention and treatment which has the potential to transform the way people access NHS care. "That can only happen with a sustained increase in funding for our sector, which is facing much harder times now than it ever did when Mr Sunak's parents owned a pharmacy years ago." Earlier in the week, NPA board member Hiten Patel met the former chancellor when he visited West Harrow for a campaign event on August 23. Patel took the opportunity to explain that pharmacies in England are not being properly supported to fulfil their potential within the NHS.

Community Pharmacy England (CPE) is gearing up to conduct a vital Pharmacy Advice Audit, calling on pharmacy owners and their teams to help measure the increasing reliance on pharmacies within communities. With years of financial strains impacting the sector, despite the much-needed £645 million recovery plan funding, the sector finds itself on the edge. The launch of Pharmacy First sparked a notable surge in people seeking advice from community pharmacies, both within and beyond the funded service, as revealed by recent sector polling. To accurately assess this trend and advocate for sustainable funding, CPE is initiating an audit to gather data crucial for showcasing the extent of unfunded care provided by community pharmacies. Scheduled to commence this week, the Pharmacy Advice Audit will entail pharmacy teams documenting informal healthcare advice dispensed over a single day.

Trade bodies have reiterated the call for more funding in response to the reports that ministers are considering a Pharmacy First scheme amid the NHS strike. The Sunday Telegraph reported that pharmacies could be drafted in to help the NHS to cope when other healthcare workers take industrial action. But, a PSNC committee member has warned on Monday that the government suggestions are "categorically impossible" without extra funding. The Company Chemists' Association (CCA) has echoed the sentiment, saying pharmacy network is on the brink of collapse. "We welcome plans for a Pharmacy First scheme in England. However, after eight years of funding cuts, the pressures on community pharmacies are simply untenable," Malcolm Harrison, chief executive of the CCA, said.

In a recent interview with The Telegraph, health secretary Steve Barclay stated that he has asked his officials within DHSC to look at a "pharmacy first" approach to alleviate pressures on A&E departments in order to avoid the widely predicted NHS winter crisis. On the face of it, this a welcome if long overdue recognition that community pharmacy is an essential part of our national healthcare infrastructure alongside our GP and A&E colleagues. But let's not get carried away - we have had lots of praise from politicians in the past which have not then been backed by firm commitments for a sustainable future for the network. Could this be a turning point? I hope so, but I am not confident it will be. I fear this may turn out to be another emergency stop-gap measure which does nothing to secure the long-term viability of the sector in England. The role of community pharmacy during the recent Covid pandemic demonstrated clearly how important we are to ensure people have easy access to essential healthcare support, advice and services. The NHS winter crisis can only be avoided or at least mitigated if the potential of the community pharmacy network to provide more patient care services is unlocked and that Barclay requires you to end pharmacy funding austerity and start investing. The Treasury will no doubt say there is no more money, but what then the alternative other than a NHS winter crisis? And, of course, treating people in secondary care settings is far more costly than community pharmacy based interventions.

The government has unveiled its much awaited 'NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan' to tackle the staff shortage in the pharmacy sector. The plan set out an ambition to increase the training places for pharmacists to around 5,000 places by 2031/32. David Webb, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England, in his open letter to pharmacy professionals said: "The NHS LTWP sets out how we can build on changes, addressing the changing needs of patients over the next 15 years, by closing the current workforce shortfall through funding for increased education and training places and a comprehensive retention strategy." The plan commits to expand training places for pharmacists by 29% to around 4,300 by 2028/29 and Grow the number of pharmacy technicians in future years. "The development of independent prescribing as part of initial education and training is a gamechanger for pharmacists, patients and the NHS, with approximately 2,800 newly registered pharmacist independent prescribers due to join the workforce every year from September 2026," said Webb. "This will be transformational for all pharmacy teams, creating improved access and quality of care for patients and, importantly, a more flexible workforce with skills that are equally applicable in all pharmacy settings, enabling multi-professional clinical teams to work in new ways."

NHS England has funded the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE) to offer 80 free places in their Accuracy Checking Pharmacy Technician (ACPT) programme. Starting August 2024, up to 10 NHSE-funded places will be available each month on a first-come, first-served basis for pharmacy technicians working in community pharmacy, NHS hospitals, and in health and justice. The funding will continue until all 80 places are allocated or until March 2025. CPPE has revealed that 50 per cent of the funding has been allocated for community pharmacy and 50 per cent for other sectors. The ACPT programme is a 3-12 month course aimed at helping pharmacy technicians achieve various competencies, ensuring they can provide safe and effective patient care.

Politicians, researchers and pharmacy leaders called on the government to make community pharmacy a fundamental part of clinical services at an event at the House of Commons on Wednesday (13). At the launch of a research publication carried out by the University of Bath in conjunction with Sigma Pharmaceuticals, community pharmacy was described as an "essential pillar of health care provision" in the UK. The aim of this research was to provide evidence to support a strategy for the future developments of community pharmacy to ensure the sector continues to meet the needs of the public in the NHS. Researchers analysed 25 health and community pharmacy related policies published by the department of health, the NHS, the pharmacy profession, and spoke to stakeholders from a wide range of backgrounds, including patients, pharmacists, NHS commissioners and GPS.

Two dozen parliamentarians from across the political spectrum have called on the prime minister to act as a wave of pharmacy closures in recent years has threatened to spiral out of control. A letter to the prime minister signed by 24 MPs and peers has warned that worse could be yet to come after "spiralling business costs" and "year after year of real terms funding cuts" have led to hundreds of pharmacy closures. New data from the PSNC shows that over 639 local pharmacies have been lost in England since 2016. "This is the equivalent to just short of one pharmacy closure per constituency", the cross-party group warned. The letter comes as MPs came together at a parliamentary summit to call for pharmacies to be embraced as a "game-changer" for tackling healthcare backlogs and taking pressure off other areas of the NHS. A 'Future of Pharmacy' event was attended by 53 parliamentarians on July 5 in the Palace of Westminster. At the event parliamentarians heard directly from frontline pharmacists and representatives of pharmacy bodies where a map of constituency-specific pharmacy numbers was also unveiled, with details of the number of pharmacy closures in MPs' local area.