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The 8th Pharmacy Business Conference, organised by Pharmacy Business, unfolded a dynamic narrative around the theme of 'Pharmacy of Tomorrow', highlighting the trajectory of innovation, adaptation, and the evolving landscape of pharmaceutical services. Attended by over 200 pharmacy owners, industry leaders, and stakeholders, the conference served as a medium for robust discussions and the exchange of valuable insights regarding the future of community pharmacy. Amidst the persistent challenges posed by an underfunded reimbursement system and negotiations with governmental bodies and the NHS for the new community pharmacy contractual framework 2024/25, the conference pivoted towards investing in staff, adapting to change by investing in new technology, and optimising commissioning as pivotal strategies. "Pharmacy professionals are playing increasingly important clinical roles in both primary and secondary care," shared David Webb, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer (CPO), NHS in a video message. He highlighted the NHS's commitment to empowering community pharmacy, with plans to expand services and deprescribe to align with the NHS's focus on preventive healthcare.

Despite the challenges confronting pharmacy owners and their teams today, many in the industry hold the belief that the future for community pharmacy is promising. In a poll conducted at the beginning of the Pharmacy Business Conference 2024, 58 per cent of participants agreed that the future of community pharmacy is positive, with 13 per cent expressing strong agreement. However, 27 per cent expressed disagreement, with 3 per cent strongly disagreeing that the sector's future is optimistic. By the end of the conference, a higher percentage of individuals (67 per cent) showed a positive outlook for community pharmacy, with over half indicating strong agreement with its positivity. The number of participants who disagreed with it decreased to 11 percent.

"If we stand still, we will die. We have to keep moving, and we have to keep changing" said Patrick Gompels, co-owner of Gompels Limited, while emphasising the need for innovation in community pharmacy services, during the recent Pharmacy Business Conference 2024. Centered on the theme 'Pharmacy of Tomorrow,' the conference, held at the Hilton Wembley on April 28, focused on adopting and adapting innovative technology as well as new ways of working and thinking to enhance patient services. Patrick was joined by Mayank Patel of Pearl Chemist Group and Michael Lennox, CEO of Community Pharmacy Somerset (LPC), during the panel discussion on innovation in community pharmacy services, moderated by Reena Barai, pharmacist and owner of S G Barai Pharmacy. On the changes he made at Gompels, Patrick said: "The first thing we did was a complete overhaul of all of our systems. Pretty much everything was stripped down." He shared that Gompels has embraced innovation by partnering with forward-thinking companies like Titan PMR, Drug Comparison, and Real World Analytics to enhance their processes and data analysis capabilities.

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has announced that the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England, David Webb will be among the keynote speakers at the Pharmacy Odyssey Conference on 13 October. He and other special guests will discuss the future of community pharmacy within the NHS, during a day of insight and practical advice for pharmacy teams. The NPA promises expert opinion on the current pressures in the sector and a thorough exploration of the long-term picture. NPA Director of Membership, Simon Tebbutt, explains: "With the NPA centenary in 2021 behind us, this will be a foray into the future - mapping the coming decade, and next half-century - as well as covering the many challenges of the present time." The theme of the conference, to be held online and sponsored by Novo Nordisk, is Pharmacy Odyssey: Services, Supply and Sustainability.

Amid media speculations that a large pharmacy multiple was putting all its stores at risk of closure, PSNC supremo Janet Morrison said the sector was in crisis and in danger of a significant collapse. Addressing delegates via a video link at Sigma Pharmaceutical's 13th Annual Community Pharmacy Conference held last week (March 4 -9) in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, she said while "a lot of consolidation or sales" would continue, a lot of the smaller, independently-owned community pharmacies - which had to work harder and harder to make ends meet - were just "hanging on in there". "But I don't know how much longer people can go on," she said, adding that the risk of actual closure was rendering the remaining pharmacies so fragile that "they may not be able to pick up the slack of many thousands of patients" who would need repeat prescriptions. "The disruption is frightful and awful. We have got 53 per cent of the population on repeat prescriptions, so that matters." Her comment on the opening day of the conference was a sober reminder that the sector - which relies heavily on income from prescriptions - couldn't afford to "carry on with the current format of a contract and the current amount of money" it was paid to deliver numerous tasks which have been heaped on it to share the burden of a crippling NHS.

Using innovation and technology is the best way for pharmacies to boost income and ensure efficiency in services, said tech-savvy independent prescriber and community pharmacy contractor Amish Patel. Patel has invested heavily in technological refurbishment at his pharmacy and installed the first dispensing robot of its type in the UK. Highlighting the downward trend in pharmacies' income, he said: "We know for the last five years plus, pharmacy income, pharmacy services - they have just been reducing… "We are still very heavily dependent on dispensing, and dispensing fees, and profit margins with the supply chain they have been ever reducing. "This (using technology) has been a new way of generating new income. But again, just to highlight it is just enjoyment of pushing the boundaries what I can do personally."

Chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee Janet Morrison has said government ministers are looking at the future of community pharmacy in England in a "bigger way" and have a vision to go "beyond the Scotland model". "I think they believe they're going beyond the Scotland model," she said, in her closing keynote at the 7th Annual Pharmacy Business Conference held in London on Sunday (May 14). Giving her views on the latest government funding - worth £645 million - for community pharmacy, the head of pharmacy negotiator, added: "Their thinking is for the future in a bigger and a more forward-thinking way." She added it was for the first time that community pharmacy has been seen "as part of primary care in a really fundamental way that gives us hope for the future". Morrison said the new funding uplift was effectively "for five quarters of activity," arguing that the common condition service won't start before December or early in the New Year due to the time it would take to get the IT systems up and running to support the rollout.

Professional leadership bodies from around the world discussed workforce shortages in community pharmacy and other challenges affecting the sector at a global meeting held in Paris last month. Delegated from Denmark, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, US and the UK updated the conference on how the profession was progressing in practice, technology and workforce development in their respective countries. The UK was represented at World Pharmacy Council meeting by National Pharmacy Association chair Andrew Lane and chief executive at the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee Janet Morrison. Lane said: "It's very useful to be part of a global network of pharmacy bodies who are all going through similar challenges as we are in the UK. Sharing intelligence on other pharmacy systems around the world helps us to prepare the right strategy for engaging with the NHS at home. "Hearing some of the strides in services and digital technology in the profession gives us hope for the future of the sector. It's clear however that key challenges such as workforce shortages are starting to have an effect in other parts of the world too."

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has launched a new revised RPS Professional Standards for Hospital Pharmacy Services at its annual conference held on Friday (11 November). RPS developed the standards through an extensive consultation with the profession, multidisciplinary teams and patients. They are relevant for providers of pharmacy services in acute, mental health, private, community service, prison, hospice and ambulance settings. The revised Standards contain two brand new descriptors - research, audit and quality improvement, and inclusion and wellbeing. Updates have been made to the supporting statements to ensure they reflect current practice and are fit for the future. A new assessment tool has been developed to support organisations either self-assess or peer-assess against the Standards. "For the first time the Standards apply UK wide, having gained support from Pharmacy Forum NI, alongside endorsement from The Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK and other professional groups," RPS said.

Chair of the health and social care committee Steve Brine and England's chief pharmacist David Webb are among a raft of speakers who will be addressing delegates at the 13th Annual Sigma Community Pharmacy Conference to be held in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic from Sunday (March 5). Day I of the conference will also feature a Q&A session with PSNC CEO Janet Morrison and her lead negotiator Mike Dent, which will be presented as a live webinar via YouTube for those unable to attend in person. Sigma Pharmaceuticals has invited all interested community pharmacists and stakeholders in the UK to join the 90 minutes session by clicking this link. Those joining the session will not only be able to listen to the Q&A session - which will run between 6.30PM and 8.00PM in UK on Sunday - but also ask questions to the PSNC executives via a live YouTube chat. Sigma says the operating landscape for community pharmacy has altered dramatically since it last held its 'away conference' in the Philippines in February 2020. The role of the independents - post pandemic - has rapidly evolved and has now been recognised by the health secretary as playing a significant part in the health of the nation.

Dr Bharat Shah CBE regrets that neither community pharmacists nor pharmaceutical wholesalers in the UK have any control over how Category M reimbursement prices in Part VIII A of the Drug Tariff are determined. The co-founder and chief executive of Sigma Pharmaceuticals was speaking at a conference organised by Avicenna in West London on Sunday (March 6). Introduced into the Drug Tariff in April 2005, Category M is used to set the reimbursement prices of over 500 drugs. The Department of Health and Social Care makes the final decision on the amount of reimbursement (cost of drugs and appliances supplied against an NHS prescription form) and remuneration (fees paid as part of the NHS community pharmacy contract for the provision of a service).

Community pharmacies in England could soon be allowed to make cancer referrals to hospitals under new plans to improve early detection of the disease. An NHS pilot scheme, which starts later this year as a pilot in an undisclosed number of places of England, will see community pharmacy staff spotting signs of cancer in people who might not have noticed symptoms. Pharmacy teams will be trained to spot red flags, such as patients with symptoms such as a cough that lasts for three weeks or more, difficulty swallowing or blood in their urine, and send them for scans and checks without needing to see a GP if they think it could be cancer. Amanda Pritchard, the NHS chief executive, will unveil the plans at the NHS Confed Expo conference in Liverpool on Wednesday (June 15), and say: "These plans have the power to truly transform the way we find and treat cancer, and ultimately spare thousands of patients and their families from avoidable pain and loss." The plans include new "roaming liver trucks" - which will be parked near GP surgeries, in town centres and food banks - to encourage people most at risk of getting liver cancer to get "on the spot scans" for diagnosis.

David Webb, the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England, acknowledged that the "pressure in the system is high", but urged everyone to "keep our eye on the design" of the NHS plan, adding that the "the objective is to bring the different parts of primary care together" in the patient interest. Speaking during the opening keynote session at the the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) conference held on Thursday (13 October), he added that the NHS plan intends to bring different parts of primary care together to help patients. He said the new integrated care boards (ICBs) are a key strategic framework as they provide the "potential to form partnerships to deliver integrated services across larger populations". "ICBs will want to work with Local Pharmaceutical Committees to plan for the local population and the new community pharmacy clinical leads in ICBs, who have been funded by NHS England, are there to advise." He explained that once an ICB takes over the commissioning of pharmaceutical services (which they are all due to do by April 2023), it could use its funds to commission a local enhanced service as an add on to an advanced service. For instance, a CVD risk assessment could be added to the blood pressure check service.

Pharmacy bodies are "bitterly disappointed" that the latest deal on the national contract makes no commitment to "fresh funding", with one organisation calling it "the biggest dis-service ever done" to community pharmacy. The only commitment made in monetary terms was one in which NHS England agreed to write off a sum of £100m in excess margin earned by contractors in previous years. This allowance, which can't be seen as new cash injection, was said to have been made in recognition of the pressures facing the sector. The figure - reached after what the the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee called "a tense period of negotiations" with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England - will cover the final two years of the current five-year Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework. The deal was announced by PSNC chief executive Janet Morrison at an annual LPC Conference in Manchester on Thursday (22 September). Welcoming the attendees, she assured everyone that the committee was well aware of the pressures the sector was facing. "I heard how contractors are feeling and their frustrations over growing pressure and lack of financial support from the government. They confirmed that many now are unable to deliver the full range of services, and others are struggling to maintain core levels of services. And the ongoing impact of capacity and workforce crisis is critical, leading to temporary closures.

Duncan Rudkin, the CEO of the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhc) has highlighted the importance of strengthening pharmacy governance to provide clarity around how pharmacies are organised and managed. This will ensure that patients and the public continue to receive safe and effective pharmacy care, he said while speaking at the annual Sigma Conference in London on Sunday (5 November). According to him, there could be rules that outlined the essential roles and responsibilities of responsible pharmacists, and professional standards for responsible pharmacists, superintended pharmacists and chief pharmacists. He also announced that the GPhC will be shortly launching a consultation to integrate a new set of standards for the statutory role of hospital chief pharmacists "which up until recently has never been recognised in law." It is expected to be launched by early January 2024. However, Duncan, emphasised that they cannot start the work on standards for responsible and superintendent pharmacists until they know the government plans in relation to supervision. "Because of course, the responsible pharmacists' regime, and the supervision regime are in many ways intertwined, and can't certainly be looked at separately.

Fife-based trainee pharmacist and Honorary Secretary of the PDA LGBT+ Network, Soh Xi Ken has won the Scottish Trades Union Congress' (STUC) Equality Award. One of Scotland's leading LGBT+ campaigners and Honorary Secretary of the PDA's LGBT+ Network has been recognised for his advocacy work for LGBT+ pharmacists in Scotland. Soh Xi Ken of the PDA received the Equality Award at the STUC Annual Congress in April 2023 in Dundee. The award praised Xi Ken's tireless advocacy for LGBT+ workers within pharmacies in Scotland, highlighting his personal experience of homophobia in Scotland and his home country, Malaysia. In May 2021, Xi Ken became a founding member of the PDA LGBT+ Network's committee and was elected as their first Honorary Secretary. The PDA LGBT+ Network is the first of its kind in the pharmacy world and has made a significant difference to the profile of LGBT+ people in the profession. Xi Ken and others within the PDA LGBT+ Network spotted that there was a lack of LGBT+-specific guidance given to pharmacy students and that their unique and specific health needs were not being addressed as part of the pharmacy education that they received.

Leaders from across the pharmacy sector and trade bodies dwelled on the challenges faced by the pharmacists at the Sigma Conference held on Sunday (2 October). "If the cost of carrying out regulation is higher than the benefits, it's time for all the bodies to sit together and talk on what can be adjusted accordingly," said Salim Jetha, Chairman, Avicenna. Jetha highlighted the challenges faced by the independent pharmacy and also raised the concern about the 'level playing field' for pharmacists compared to GPs. He said: "GPs get paid for energy cost, premises cost, the staffing cost. We don't get paid for that. So don't be misled by saying we are being exactly the same. Yes, on paper we are, but in reality we are not. I think also the rules of engagement are different." He called for better collaboration with GPs, and urged PSNC and other trade bodies to ensure a level playing field. Janet Morrison, CEO, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee(PSNC), warned that the pressure in the sector is building up to a 'breaking point'.

To help stop the pharmacists pay delay in Northern Ireland, the Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) will present a motion on fairer pay to the ICTU Biennial Delegate Conference, taking place from 5 to 7 July. The PDA motion states, "…there are other employers within the health system, that echo Agenda for Change terms, despite the fact they are essentially private businesses contracted to the NHS, not actually public bodies. While echoing the pay structure has some advantages, these employers also seek to unnecessarily delay pay increases on the basis that the NHS changes are so delayed. The Universities in Ulster Schools of Pharmacy are ranked as some of the highest in the UK. They are gifting our population with high calibre graduates destined to provide excellent patient care. These pharmacists want to stay in a job that helps patients. They want to deliver the care that they have spent years of time and often thousands of pounds to render themselves confident and capable."

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) presented the best practice award to a pharmacist from NHS Tayside at an event on May 29 which celebrated pharmacy practice across Scotland. The Glasgow event, organised by RPS, brought together pharmacists from across the country to present their own best-practice examples. These included all sectors of pharmacy, including hospital, GP practices, community and specialist settings. Delegates at the event were asked to vote for what they considered to be the winning example of best practice. Alex Matos, specialist clinical pharmacist, won the award for his presentation on 'Implementing Pharmacogenomics in the Stroke Service'. Alex won a £500 bursary for travel and accommodation to the RPS's annual conference in London, where he has been invited to present on his best practice example.

It's time for pharmacists to get their technology forecasting hats on and be selective in choosing digital technologies, commented Prof James Woudhuysen, of London South Bank University, at the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) Conference, Pharmacy Odyssey, held on Thursday (13 October). In a session on 'Healthcare in tomorrow's digital environment', hosted by Fergus Walsh, Prof Woudhuysen opined that digitisation has its merit, but it's quite tricky, and slower than we imagine. "Mechanisation has a digital component that we can look to as a way out of the gloom of the moment. And in dispensing, labelling, prescribing, and many other features of the conventional retail pharmacist, there's a lot that could be done for productivity and automation," he said. Replying to a question on 'where are we at the digital front now and where can it go', Woudhuysen replied: "It's taken 20 years for the electronic prescription. It was Tony Blair, who wanted every prescription electronic. The mishaps on repeat prescriptions and all the rest of it are still quite intense. So, we need to remember that electronics is only as clever as software and then human input into it. There're still many mistakes.