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Join us for the prestigious Pharmacy Business Awards 2023, celebrating excellence in community pharmacy. Attend the glittering ceremony in London and witness industry leaders, officials, and ministers. Submit your entry now and showcase the unique services of community pharmacy. Nomination deadline: July 7th, 2023.

Data crunched by an online pharmacy delivery company paints a concerning picture for the pharmacy sector in England. Gophr's 'Prescription For Pressure' initiative reveals a challenging time for the sector and is supported by separate analysis by the BBC showing that the number of pharmacies in England is at its lowest since 2010. In addition, new powers being introduced for pharmacists to prescribe common prescription drugs and perform routine tests create an even greater workload for already overstretched pharmacists. Gophr's data reveals that: * Each pharmacy in England serves an average of 6,078 people. * In 2022, pharmacists dispensed 1.043 billion prescriptions, 26.3 million more than 2021. * A single pharmacy in England dispensed 248 prescriptions a day on average in 2022. Based on the most up-to-date statistics from the Office for National Statistics, NHS England and Statista, Gophr's calculations show that pharmacists have around 116 seconds to dispense a prescription, which is less time than the 180 seconds it takes to make a Quarter Pounder at McDonald's.

Well Pharmacy has acquired three new pharmacies taking the total number of pharmacies owned by the chain across the UK to 746. The UK's largest independent and third largest pharmacy chain has bought Pharmacy Express in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and two Frosts Pharmacy's in Banbury, North Oxfordshire, and Marston, near Oxford. All three pharmacies will be rebranded. # Well did not disclose the amount it paid for the new acquisitions. Operations director of Well Pharmacy Louis Purchase said that the group was "excited" to expand. "We believe passionately in community pharmacy, and we want our offering to be the best experience of this in the UK. We also hope our new colleagues can keep progressing and develop their clinical skills even further by being part of Well Pharmacy." Frosts Pharmacy teams have joined Well from their pharmacies based in Ferriston, Banbury, North Oxfordshire and Marston, near Oxford. They both serve local people from the heart of their communities and offer a successful travel vaccination clinic in Marston.

Growing up with a family that worked in pharmacy, our dinner time conversation was not like that of other families. Ours would centre around medicines, prescriptions, and the health challenges within our local community. I quickly came to understand the importance of the role played by community pharmacists. So I can't help but be concerned that the current direction being taken by digital health innovation threatens to leave community pharmacies behind. Whilst it is brilliant that patients can easily access their prescriptions through the rise of online pharmacies, many of these cut out the vital knowledge and expertise of local community pharmacists, and threaten to end the traditional close ties between local community pharmacists and their patients. Nine out of 10 NHS users believe that pharmacists play an unrivalled role when it comes to keeping patients in the community safe. We must ensure that digital health does not replace this important source of advice for health problems and injuries, but instead preserves and enhances this vital, personal role and enables pharmacists to continue delivering care in new and effective ways. A vital connection with patients Community pharmacies provide crucial support to local patients with managing their medicines safely, particularly older and more vulnerable people. The specific expertise and knowledge held by pharmacists can help inform the long-term management of a patient's condition and ensure they are kept safe from potential side effects and complications.

The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has become a member of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP). On Thursday (22 September), the FIP council voted to welcome the PDA as a full member of the global federation of organisations that brings together and advances pharmacy. Mark Koziol, PDA chairman, said: "Being admitted to FIP with such a decisive level of support from its Council means that the PDA can ensure that UK pharmacists can enjoy a clear and powerful voice representing their collective professional interests at global level, which of late they could not. "Bringing one of the largest pharmacy membership organisations in the world to FIP also gives the PDA significant influence in being able to inform the policies of the World Health Organisation. This means that the PDA can do even more for members by helping to make pharmacy practice more professionally fulfilling for them." "The PDA constantly seeks ways to provide even better support for members; membership of FIP will give the PDA much more influence and will result in better outcomes for pharmacists," the association said. To support humanitarian crises in other parts of the world, the PDA approached FIP, as a global pharmacy leadership organisation.

The Chief Pharmacist for England and Co-Chairs of professional leadership commission has responded to the questions raised by the Pharmacists Defence Association (PDA)'s member on the professional leadership survey. In early September, the PDA wrote to the UK's Chief Pharmaceutical Officers to increase transparency and confidence in the process by asking for clarification of some of the commission's thinking, assumptions, and scope. On behalf of all four CPhOs, Chief Pharmacist for England David Webb provided feedback: "The Commission has two independent co-chairs and members have agreed to abide by the 7 principles for the conduct of public life as recommended by the Nolan Commission which form part of the Terms of Reference. Commission members have been appointed on behalf of all pharmacy professionals to contribute their expertise in and knowledge of professional leadership and are not appointed to represent their particular countries, organisations, sectors or roles."

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 new data from NHS England has revealed that more than 100,000 patients were treated for minor illness by their high street pharmacist in just one month. According to new NHS figures, in June, 118,123 people with minor illnesses such as a sore throat or constipation, or those in need of medicine urgently, received a same-day consultation with their local pharmacist after calling NHS 111 or their GP practice - an increase of more than four-fifths (83%) on the number in the same month last year (64,512). The data comes alongside expanded roles for community pharmacies ahead of winter, announced at the NHS England board meeting today. "From this week, NHS 111 online can directly refer people to their high street pharmacist for a same-day consultation, rather than patients needing to call the phone line," said NHS England. Amanda Pritchard, NHS chief executive, said: "Our local pharmacies ensure hundreds of thousands of people every week get the support and medication they need and today's figures show that in just one month, over 100,000 patients have also had consultations with their local pharmacist for minor illnesses - this means patients are getting the care they need quickly but also in a convenient way that can fit in with their busy lives.

The Community Pharmacy England Committee has adopted a new approach to engagement with sector by inviting all pharmacy owners to share their views on pharmacy's finances, pressures and capacity ahead of its meeting in July. It has sought views of pharmacists via short poll by Sunday (2 July) and will have a discussion on the poll results at the meeting before reporting back to the sector afterwards. The key focus for July Committee Meeting will be to make most of £645m for the community pharmacy sector, and also on the ongoing work to make the wider case for more investment in the sector. This new way of working follows association's rebrand on 30th May which signalled the start of its new approach to engagement to help them to build stronger relationships with pharmacy owners. The association hopes this new approach will help them better engage with members and listen to pharmacy's views better.

"Discussions must involve the government on behalf of NHS Scotland, CPS on behalf of the owners, and the PDA as the pharmacists' representative," it said. The association believes that there is a need for discussion and decision-making that listens to and balances the rights and responsibilities of both employers and workers, to generate benefits for individuals, organisations, and society. It added: "Even though Scotland provides the most generous community pharmacy settlement in the UK, recent reports suggest it is not enough for pharmacy owners with CPS's rejection of the latest funding proposal in May. Though the Scottish government found an extra £20M to ease pressures related to medicines price increases, an overall agreement has still not been reached." "The UK-wide chains may be doing less well in the parts of their networks covered by the Westminster government's contract, but the taxpayers and government of Scotland need to be given reassurance that they are in no way subsidising funding shortfalls in England's pharmacy contract." Recently, when LloydsPharmacy's Scotland branches recently came on the market, they appear to have been sold exclusively to existing contractors, including the UK-wide multiple, Rowlands Pharmacy, who have acquired 30 of them. Other small and medium-sized Scottish pharmacy chains have apparently been able to double in size overnight by acquiring branches.

Heart surgery is a major medical procedure that is often performed to treat heart diseases and conditions. It involves the opening of the chest to access the heart and perform repairs or replacements of damaged or diseased tissues or organs.

The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has republished a three-year-old report which underscores the vital role of community pharmacists and pharmacy t echnicians in a 'modern NHS' amid speculations that the government is set to announce plans to enhance the role of community pharmacy teams. PDA's 2019 report which "took three year to compile" highlighted significant empirical evidence and made recommendations to develop the roles of both community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, and the skill mix required to meet patients' needs. It examined in detail the role of pharmacy technicians in community pharmacy. The PDA still that pressure on the NHS can be managed much more effectively through the better use of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. In the community pharmacy setting, it is evident that if the further development of the pharmacist's role is to be facilitated and pharmacists are to become more patient facing in the future, an extended role and greater responsibility for pharmacy technicians is not only desirable, but ultimately it is essential.