Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has backed pharmacists to play a greater clinical role in the health and well-being of the nation, describing them
as "valuable and trusted" members of the community.
Pharmacists have faced a difficult year with 222 community pharmacies closing in just the first six months.
Boots alone will be closing 300 branches over the next 12 months.
Sunak, however, insisted that his government knows the "hard work of pharmacy teams", and that he wants to "enable them to do more to support the NHS."
Speaking at the annual Sigma Conference in London on Sunday (5 November), the prime minister reiterated that community pharmacy is in line for a much-needed
boost in funding.
"Earlier this year, the government announced plans for further investment of up to £645 million over the next few years to support the Pharmacy First service
for patients," Sunak said in a letter read out at the conference by Lord Dolar Popat.
"This means that community pharmacies will be able to assess patients and provide some options to protect them without a GP appointment."
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.
The issues related to race and ethnicity are common across the sectors, but the problem is not unsolvable, said panelists in a discussion on Race, Identity and Belonging In The Workplace, held during the Pharmacy Business Diversity Conference on Thursday (December 9).
Creating safe and comfortable spaces and allowing authentic conversations is a precursor to resolving this big challenge, said Zaheer Ahmad MBE, global head of
Inclusion and Diversity at GSK Consumer Healthcare.
The session, moderated by the conference chair BBC presenter Clive Myrie, also had Asif Sadiq MBE, senior vice president at WarnerMedia for Equity and Inclusion,
International, and Sathya Bala, founder & CEO of True Change and My Skin My Story, a growing global community for women of colour.
Ahmad said encouraging open conversations is important as there is great discomfort and stigma attached to talking about it, and many times senior leaders fall short in their efforts not because they have racist views or they don't believe in advancing race and ethnicity, but because they are not aware.
The strength of any organisation lies in its people. This being a common norm in the world of business, several of them are taking healthy initiatives and opening discussions around gender diversity and equality.
Panelists during a session on Empowering Women In the Workplace held during the Pharmacy Business Diversity Conference on Thursday (December 9), agreed that having gender diversity in business, not just benefits women, but the whole organisation.
"It drives engagement, diversity of thinking and ultimately performance," said Ifti Khan, pharmacy superintendent at Well Pharmacy, in the session moderated by the
conference chair and BBC presenter Clive Myrie.
To substantiate his point, he cited a recent report by McKinsey & Company, as per which companies in the top quartile for ethnic and cultural diversity are 36 per cent more profitable than those in the fourth quartile.
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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.