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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 National Health Service (NHS) is embracing new technology and innovations like artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce the number of missed hospital appointments and improve waiting times for elective care. Following a successful pilot in Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, the health service is set to roll out AI software to 10 more trusts across England in the coming months. The software, developed by Deep Medical in collaboration with a frontline worker and NHS clinical fellow, helps reduce the number of missed appointments by offering patients convenient time slots and backup booking options. Since the AI programme was piloted six months ago, Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust has seen a 30 per cent fall in non-attendances. During the pilot period, a total of 377 did not attends (DNAs) were prevented and an additional 1,910 patients were attended.

In continuation of the NHS Covid vaccine programme, Covid jabs for five and six-year olds will be available at the local vaccination centres or community pharmacies outside of school hours. Following the recent JCVI guidance that recommended all children between 5 and 11 would benefit from a non-urgent offer of the COVID vaccine, the NHS will send invitations to one million families with five and six-year-olds this week. "Invitations being sent to families this week will set out how easy and convenient it is to take up the offer of a vaccine as part of the NHS COVID vaccination programme by booking through the National Booking Service, or visiting their nearest walk-in site," NHS said. Between April 25 and May 1, there are already more than 33,500 children aged five to 11 booked in for their dose of the life-saving vaccine, with a further 50,000 slots still available. Dr Nikki Kanani, GP and Deputy Lead for the NHS COVID-19 vaccination programme, said: "It is great to see so many families already booked in for their children to receive their Covid vaccine this week, helping to protect themselves against potential future waves of the virus.

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."

The Pharmacists Defence Association (PDA) has expressed its keenness to work with the NHS nationally and at the ICB level to discuss how the pharmacist workforce can most effectively be part of the multidisciplinary team, after the publication of Long-awaited NHS England workforce plan. Welcoming its publication Alison Jones, PDA Director of Policy said: "It gives greater clarity around the future direction and strategy for professional development, training, and opportunities for those currently working in the health service or considering their future career. There is a strong emphasis on further development of the clinical role of pharmacists to support better patient care. "However, this is a plan that will take years, indeed decades to come to fruition and its success will need to be underpinned by significant funding for its entire life course. Workplace pressures, reductions in support staff, and a lack of protected learning time are matters of immediate concern for many PDA members, issues which are regularly highlighted through activities, such as the safer pharmacies survey.

Community pharmacy teams are urged to share their views relating to the new NHS Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS). "This will ensure that the tool supports the needs of pharmacy team members and their patients," said the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC). BaRS is an interoperability standard for healthcare IT systems which should enable booking and referral information to be sent to or from care providers, such as community pharmacies, quickly, safely and in a format useful to clinicians. "The intentions are that the BaRS IT standard will eventually be available in all care settings. The way the standard could be used in pharmacies is currently being considered, including the potential for use for referrals from NHS 111 to community pharmacy." The BaRS team are conducting interviews (usually lasting 30-45 minutes) to hear more the current experiences and the future preferences regarding sending and receiving referral messages.

Pharmacies and other spaces should be able to facilitate the provision of health care to bring services closer to patients and reduce demands on general practice, suggested a report by Tony Blair Institute. In a paper 'Modern and Sustainable NHS Providing Accessible and Personalised Care for All', it has propose six areas for reform where radical-but-practical policy action will begin to transform the future of the NHS and deliver better patient care. It has proposed to create new access routes for services and providers. It added: "The range and availability of health-care services must increase to reflect citizens' demands and their increasingly complex needs. "Pharmacies, gyms, supermarkets, workplaces and other spaces should all be able to provide or facilitate the provision of health care, bringing services closer to patients and reducing demands on general practice. It suggested: "We must move towards greater community-based care and the creation of a neighbourhood health service, with more routes for direct patient access, to ensure services are available when and where people need them. These should all be accessible through a single, simple digital front door to the NHS."

The NHS has launched plans to expand pioneering subscription-style drug contracts to develop lifesaving antibiotics of the future. It is building on its world-first pilot to incentivise the pharmaceutical industry to develop new antibiotics that could be offered to NHS patients when they need them the most. The consultation has launched almost a year to the day that contracts for two superbug-busting drugs were rolled out as part of a world-first pilot. Cefiderocol and ceftazidime-avibactam, new antibiotics manufactured by Shionogi and Pfizer respectively, were awarded world-first subscription contracts which provided the companies with a fixed annual fee based primarily on the availability of the drugs and their value to the NHS, as opposed to the volumes used. By breaking the link between the payments companies receive and the number of their antibiotics prescribed, the NHS is removing any incentive to overuse antibiotics, decreasing the risk of life-threatening infections, such as sepsis and pneumonia, becoming resistant to treatment.

Several pharmacies have joined the inhaler recycling scheme in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, to support NHS England's Greener NHS programme, which aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2040. It is part of a collaborative working initiative between the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and AstraZeneca UK Ltd, supported by the Black Country Integrated Care Board and Wolverhampton City Local Pharmaceutical Committee. Under this scheme, old and used inhalers are recycled and transformed into new products, such as coat hangers and waste bins. Simon Evans, group chief strategy officer for The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, emphasised the importance of prioritising the reduction of carbon footprint while maintaining high-quality care, to protect the planet for future generations. "The Trust has already made significant achievements in several areas including the physical estate, clinical services, waste recycling, catering and medicines - with this inhaler recycling scheme from pharmacy being the latest string to our bow," he said.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and National Pharmacy Association (NPA) have both urged the new health secretary Steve Barclay to back the 'pharmacy first' approach in England as mentioned by his predecessor on numerous occasions. "Sajid Javid recognised the vital role of community pharmacy and the potential of a 'Pharmacy First' to support patient access to care. I would urge the new Health Secretary to see this through to completion," said chair of RPS in England Thorrun Govind. Thorrun hopes the new health secretary will engage with pharmacy leaders about how we can make the most of our health and care workforce to support the NHS recovery, including reducing health inequalities, managing the growing cost of long-term conditions, and utilising the enhanced skills of Pharmacist Independent Prescribers. Commenting on the new appointment, she said: "This is a crucial time for the future of health and care - with continued pressures on teams, changes to NHS structures and organisations, and the need for long-term investment in the workforce. "With a 'refresh' of the NHS Long-Term Plan and the Government's workforce plan expected later this year, these must support a more ambitious approach to advancing the clinical role of pharmacists across the NHS to better meet changing patient demand, backed by investment in pharmacy education and training.

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.

Rising chronic illnesses and an aging population are threatening to bankrupt the National Health Service, Labour's Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said on October 11. Streeting announced a substantial £1.1 billion injection to strengthen the NHS with the goal of clearing the backlog and introducing additional clinics on evenings and weekends. The frontbencher outlined a reform agenda to ensure NHS is back on its head for the future of healthcare in the UK. Streeting said that a Labour government will not waste "money we don't have"- instead aims to revolutionise the NHS by shifting its focus from hospitals to communities. "Our emphasis is on transitioning from an analogue to a digital framework and prioritising prevention over sickness-oriented healthcare," he noted.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) launched a new Innovative Medicines Fund on Tuesday (June 7) under which £340 million has been made available to purchase potentially life-saving drugs early. This will allow NHS patients in England to have early access to potentially life-saving and cutting-edge treatments Health secretary Sajid Javid said: "I want NHS patients to be the first in the world to access the most promising and revolutionary treatments that could extend or save their lives. "The launch of the Innovative Medicines Fund delivers another manifesto pledge and will fast-track cutting-edge medicines to adults and children to give people renewed hope for a better future." A total of £680 million has been ringfenced for the Innovative Medicines Fund and Cancer Drugs Fund - £340 million each - to fast-track medicines to NHS patients. DHSC said: "The Innovative Medicines Fund will provide quick access to novel treatments, including potentially lifesaving gene therapies for serious conditions with few treatment options. It often takes longer for pharmaceutical companies to collect data on a medicine's clinical and cost effectiveness for rare diseases due to the smaller patient cohort.

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.

A £5m project has been launched to introduce new blood tests in the National Health Service (NHS) that can diagnose Alzheimer's disease. The blood tests could be available on the NHS within five years and they can diagnose the disease earlier and more accurately than current methods, experts have said. Alzheimer's Research UK, the Alzheimer's Society and the National Institute of Health and Care Research have jointly launched the project. Susan Kohlhaas, Executive Director of Research and Partnerships at Alzheimer's Research UK, said that the NHS doesn't possess the "required levels of diagnostic infrastructure" to cope with the "growing demand" for dementia diagnosis. "Low-cost tools like blood tests that are non-invasive and simpler to administer than current gold standard methods are the answer to this," she added.

As the countdown to the next UK election begins, the King's Fund has identified three priorities to improve public health. The national action would be taken by the future government to fix the "NHS and social care" in the country. The health policy think tank said it would prioritise "improving access to out-of-hospital care", making "careers in health and social care" more attractive and tackling the biggest risk factors affecting people's health. It highlighted that workforce crisis is one of the biggest challenges faced by the National Health Service (NHS) and social care services in England while citing "years of poor planning and fragmented responsibilities" as the reason for widespread staff shortages. As per the King's Fund's data, there were more than 125,000 vacancies across the NHS workforce in England in October 2023, not including primary care vacancies such as GPs, and 152,000 vacant posts in the adult social care workforce.

Responding to a new National Audit Office (NAO) report that indicated that NHS England's Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) needs improvements, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has expressed concerns that the plan may not adequately address the needs of GPs. Published in June 2023, the workforce plan estimated that the NHS's health workforce will need to grow from 1.4m full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in 2021-22 to between 2.3m and 2.4m FTE workers in 2036-37, an increase of 65 per cent to 72 per cent. However, the NAO report highlighted that the workforce modelling has significant weaknesses, including a complex design; manual adjustments; optimistic future assumptions and limited public communication of their uncertainty; and modelling outputs that could not be fully replicated. To improve the modelling, the report recommended exploring the uncertainty of these assumptions and considering potential outcomes if they do not materialize as expected. Additionally, it suggested including full integration of the different parts of the modelling pipeline to minimise manual adjustments.

Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee Steve Brine MP has called on community pharmacy contractors to join a newly launched a parliamentary 'call for evidence' which will look into 'prevention' as a key to the future of the NHS. A former pharmacy minister and keen supporter of the sector, Mr Brine has called on all community pharmacists to "make their contribution count" by taking part in a major inquiry which will remain open for submission until Wednesday 8 February 2023 and will also involve general practitioners, nurses and other health professionals. Community pharmacists can submit their proposals written under 750 words, outlining what they think are the issues around prevention the parliamentary body should explore, why these issues deserve the Commons Select Committee's attention, and how government policy could be developed or improved to address them. The submissions will then be used to help the committee decide where it should focus its attention in the later stages of the inquiry on prevention, which is a vital part of the NHS Long Term Plan.

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 Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has been on the lookout for innovative ideas and suggestions that could transform the future of pharmacy practice in England over the next decade. The society's new project with the King's Fund to transform the future of pharmacy practice in England is at a consultation phase, seeking views and opinions of pharmacy teams from all areas of practice including primary, secondary, social and community care to ensure that the system gets the best out of pharmacy and the public receives seamless, joined-up care. "We want to build a vision that sets out the role of and value of pharmacists and pharmacy teams working across systems, providing patient care and NHS services," said RPS in a statement. "Transforming the future of pharmacy practice recognises the urgent need to build on new ways of working established across health and care systems during the pandemic to meet the increasingly complex health needs of people and improve patient outcomes."