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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 government has allocated an additional 350 medical school places in England, making a significant step in delivering the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. Supported by more than £2.4 billion in government funding, the plan outlines the strategy for recruiting and retaining hundreds of thousands more staff over the next 15 years to deliver the future workforce the NHS requires. One of the key commitments of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan is to double the number of medical school places in England to 15,000 by 2031. As part of the ongoing efforts to fulfill this pledge, the Office for Students (OfS) has designated 350 places for medical schools nationwide for the academic year 2025 to 2026, targeting under-doctored areas.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced on Monday (November 22) that it would integrate NHS Digital, NHSX and Health Education England into NHS England and Improvement (NHSE&I) as part of major workforce planning and technology reforms. The merger is part of the government's long-term strategy for the recruitment, training and retention of healthcare staff coupled with a digital transformation of working practices. The overhaul is based on recommendations made by NHS Digital chair Laura Wade-Gery who led a government-commissioned review to improve patient care, centralise the NHS workforce and accelerate digital delivery. Commenting on her recommendations, Wade-Gery, said: "In the rest of our lives, digital has really changed how we live and we must now make this true in healthcare. The goal of my review is to equip the national centre with the right capability to support Integrated Care Systems to deliver better citizen health. We need to have the culture, operating model, skills, capabilities and processes to put data, digital and technology at the heart of how we transform health services."

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.

Pharmacy leaders have called for reassurance that the workforce plan, expected by April 2023, will cover the entirety of the pharmacy workforce across the health service, including in community pharmacies. A joint letter has been signed by representatives from 14 pharmacy organisations which highlights that with continued pressures on services, it is more important than ever to support the pharmacy workforce so that the staff needed to deliver patient care now and into the future can be recruited, trained and retained. Mark Koziol, Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) Chairman said: "Our pharmacist members practise across the entire health system and have the potential to do far more to help patients and improve public health, but they can only do so safely if they are in appropriately staffed workplaces. This is a workforce issue, so it is important that the Government works with representatives of the pharmacist workforce, and of their employers, to get a suitably agreed plan in place." Thorrun Govind, English Pharmacy Board Chair, Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), said: "It will be crucial to use the skills of all our health professions to support the NHS recovery, reduce health inequalities, manage the growing cost of long-term conditions, and deliver best value from medicines.

Recently, the English Health Secretary has talked about introducing a 'Pharmacy First' model similar to that which exists in Scotland. This would be a win-win outcome providing people with better access to essential healthcare support, advice and treatment whilst relieving strain on other parts of the NHS, not least GPs and A&E. It is a no-brainer and yet despite a few media headlines there are still no firm proposals on the table to make this a reality. It surely cannot be right that you can receive a broad range of patient care services in Scotland which are not available in England. It works well in Scotland, Wales is keen to develop more pharmacy-based services and Northern Ireland, leaving aside the current funding dispute, has had a minor ailments service for many years. If the English Health Secretary is sincere in his interest in adopting an English version of the Scottish model, then there are critical aspects he needs to consider. Firstly, start with the patient journey through the healthcare ecosystem from illness prevention through to long-term condition management. What is the role of community pharmacy and how do we guide people to seek support from the most appropriate healthcare professional? What is the vision for community pharmacy delivering patient care in the next decade? The lesson from Scotland is that the government needs to sit down with the sector and map that out together. There are no quick fix overnight solutions. This needs to be a long-term commitment backed by adequate funding. Supervision regulations need to change and there needs to be a thought through workforce strategy which avoids community pharmacy shortages as that does nothing to deliver improved patient outcomes.

The English health secretary has fumbled the opportunity to prevent a crisis in the NHS this winter. She either does not understand or value the role of community pharmacy as the third pillar of patient access to essential healthcare. Her announcement that she wants community pharmacy to provide more services to take the strain off A&E departments and GP surgeries comes on the same day DHSC announces no new long-term investment to sustain the sector. Does she not understand that as a result of years of government underinvestment in England the network is in decline with random closures across the country? Too many pharmacies are temporarily closed every day due to workforce shortages beyond the control of pharmacy owners. Adding a new service here and there, even with some additional funding, does not address the longer term viability of the network which needs to know which patient services it will be expected to provide over the next 10 years - not just the next few months - and how those will be adequately remunerated. Asking more from our sector with no new investment is a strategy which is bound to fail. The pharmacy contract remains economically illiterate. The sector's finances need open heart surgery not a couple of paracetamol tablets.

The Department of Health has published 'A Guide to Developing the Role of Consultant Pharmacists' in Northern Ireland on Thursday (22 June). The guidance provides direction on supporting a consistent approach to the introduction of senior clinical pharmacy roles within and across HSC organisations. The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer Professor Cathy Harrison said: "There is a recognised need for increased clinical pharmacy and medicines focussed leadership across our HSC." "Consultant Pharmacists have an essential role in healthcare as clinicians and as leaders who make a significant impact to medicines optimisation and clinical governance, providing a vital link between clinical practice and service development by generating and disseminating evidence to drive improvements in care. "I am delighted that this guidance has been published to take forward the strategic development and appointment of the consultant pharmacy workforce in both primary and secondary care and to enable pharmacy to be at the forefront of healthcare in NI".