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Community pharmacists involved in the Independent Prescribers Pathfinder Programme will be able to generate NHS prescriptions through the NHS Electronic Prescription Service (EPS). NHS England has secured a new clinical system, CLEO SOLO from Cleo Systems, to facilitate this service. The system is being rolled out to 'pathfinder' sites so they can start delivering their proposed prescribing models and pathways. Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) across England have been informed of this development and are asked to provide support and leadership to their sites throughout the programme, which will run until March 2025. NHS England will also conduct a series of webinars with ICBs to discuss the CLEO SOLO rollout. David Webb, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer at NHS England, highlighted that the Pathfinder Programme will enable community pharmacist prescribers at 'pathfinder' sites to issue NHS prescriptions for conditions such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. "This will help us develop a framework which will support the commissioning of independent prescribing as part of clinical services in community pharmacy in the future," Webb said.

Tase Oputu, Chair of the RPS England Pharmacy Board, has been appointed to the NHS Assembly, to represent the pharmacy profession. The NHS Assembly is a national forum that brings together stakeholders from across the health and care sectors to advise the NHS England board on implementing the NHS Long Term Plan (LTP). Members include national and frontline clinical leaders, patient leaders, staff representatives, health and care system leaders and voluntary, community and social enterprise sector leaders. The NHS Assembly meets four to five times a year. Tase will officially join the Assembly during its meeting on 11 September. Tase highlighted the crucial role of pharmacists and pharmacy teams in the healthcare system while expressing her anticipation of representing the pharmacy profession at the NHS Assembly.

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.

A groundbreaking research project has revealed that the public is urging the government to prioritise primary and community care over hospitals. The study also found a strong public willingness to pay higher taxes to enhance NHS services. The Health Foundation and Ipsos UK conducted the research, combining nationwide polling with in-depth public deliberative workshops. These workshops, held in King's Lynn, Leeds, and London, constitute one of the most comprehensive public consultations about the future of the NHS in England. The study published on 16 May underscores the public's desire for a redistribution of NHS resources. If the NHS budget remains unchanged, 60 per cent of those polled believe the government should focus on improving access to community-based services like general practice and dentistry.

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.

In a significant move to enhance the working conditions of over 50,000 postgraduate doctors in the National Health Service, NHS England has unveiled a series of measures aimed at providing greater choice and opportunities to the new entrants in the medical profession. With flexible rotas, reducing payroll errors, and easing the financial burden of course fees, the NHS has taken steps to address the issues faced by junior doctors in order to support their well-being. In recent announcement, 83 per cent of senior doctors and dentists accepted the government's pay offer. Alongside the junior doctors who still fighting for fair pay and recognition, the senior medical professionals demanded that the authorities help them tackle issues pertaining underfunding and overworking in the NHS. Junior doctors in training also often face challenges with frequent moves between trusts, leading to short notice changes in work schedules and duplicated inductions when transitioning to new hospitals. As a measure taken by the health serivces, the committee aims to review the minimum legal requirements for statutory and mandatory training, potentially halving the time burden for such training and allowing doctors to spend more time caring for patients as part of the long-term workforce plan.

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.

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.

More pharmacies should do NHS Health Checks to improve access, a new study that focuses on ways to improve the lives of people living with obesity, recommends. The report, Levelling Up Obesity Care, by pharma giant Novo Nordisk follows a series of roundtables with patient advocates, healthcare professionals and academics to generate understanding on the future of obesity care in England. Amongst its recommendations, the report says that 'to widen access and alleviate pressure on GP services, consideration should be given to expanding NHS Health Checks in community pharmacy'. NHS Health Checks include a measurement of Body Mass Index (BMI). Those most likely to benefit from a Health Check include people who live in more deprived areas, and are more likely to be living with obesity, says the report.

The King's Fund has published an in-depth analysis highlighting the priorities that the government's new 10-year health plan should address to combat health inequalities. This plan, currently being developed by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England, will significantly shape the long-term future of the NHS. The independent think tank emphasises that a core focus of this new plan should be to enable the NHS to better address health inequalities and support people with the worst health outcomes. Sarah Woolnough, CEO of The King's Fund, explained: "Health inequalities are avoidable, unfair, and systematic differences in health between different groups of people, and they reflect broader societal issues such as those related to income, housing, gender, ethnicity or disability." "Supporting the health and care system to do more to tackle these differences has been a strategy priority for the Fund over the past five years." Drawing on its extensive work on health inequalities in the last five years, the charity has outlined seven key priorities that should shape the 10-year health plan:

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."

In response to concerns raised by Community Pharmacy England (CPE), ministers have decided to lower the October threshold for the Pharmacy First service to 20. This decision addresses a major worry for pharmacy owners who have struggled to meet the required number of clinical pathways for monthly Pharmacy First payments, especially as the October increase to 30 pathways approached. CPE has been actively engaged in discussions with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England over the past few weeks to address this issue. Commenting on the decision, Janet Morrison, CEO of Community Pharmacy England, said: "It is great that ministers have responded to our concerns about another increase to the Pharmacy First payment threshold: this decision will save many community pharmacies from missing out on a vital payment this month." Morrison added that CPE will continue to monitor service data and, if needed, make further representations to ministers about future months. She also emphasised the need to find a long-term solution, which involves "NHS England marketing Pharmacy First effectively and ensuring that GPs are actively referring people to the service."

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.

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.

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.

At last Friday's Clinical Congress Conference, the NHSE Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England at NHS England, David Webb, announced the upcoming launch of the Pharmacy Stakeholder Forum- an initiative led by NHS England aimed to improve pharmacy professional leadership and foster collaboration within the sector. Webb highlighted the forum's significance as a platform for driving transformative change in pharmacy leadership. "The aim is to deliver collaboration to develop a stronger and more united voice for pharmacy professionals," Webb emphasised. Highlighting the need to drive transformative change in pharmacy leadership, he underscored that "the overarching goal is to address key challenges facing the pharmacy profession and chart a course for future development and innovation." Scheduled to commence in June, the Pharmacy Stakeholder Forum will provide a space for diverse organisations and networks with a vested interest in pharmacy professional leadership to converge.

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.

"We need to fix the front door to our NHS by investing in community pharmacy," asserts Daisy Cooper as more and more pharmacies "worry about the future of their business." Reflecting on the challenges faced by pharmacists during the pandemic, she emphasised their pivotal role in launching vaccination schemes across communities and the larger role pharmacies play in complementing traditional NHS facilities. Cooper recalls her collaboration with local pharmacies in St. Albans, where she worked hand in glove with them to address challenges faced by pharmacists to obtain information from NHS England regarding protocols and procedures. She told Pharmacy Business reporter that she had to work out something "hand in glove to help them get those vaccinated schemes up and running, as pharmacies were desperate to take part in the vaccination scheme" in her constituency. Describing their unique selling point (USP), Cooper emphasised the convenience and immediacy of pharmacies located in high street areas and warned that pharmacy closures "should be a real wake up call for the government."

Wes Streeting's speech at the Labour Party Conference 2024 outlines several key health and social care reforms, which hold significant implications for community pharmacy in England. His focus on reforming and rebuilding the NHS to ensure fair, universal access to care, with prevention and early intervention at its core, presents both opportunities and challenges for community pharmacy. Here are the potential implications: 1. Prevention Focus Streeting's vision of a shift from a reactive, hospital-based model to a preventive healthcare system presents a promising future for community pharmacies. These changes could significantly reduce pressures on GPs and hospitals, integrating pharmacies more closely into primary care networks and enhancing their role in preventive care. 2. Digital Transformation The move from an "analogue to digital" NHS could see community pharmacies adopting more digital tools and systems for service delivery. This would likely involve greater use of digital prescribing, telehealth consultations, and AI-driven services. Pharmacies will need to invest in digital infrastructure and ensure that pharmacy professionals are trained to operate within a more tech-centric environment. 3. Reform and Redistribution of Services Streeting's plans to extend choice and equitable access to services mean that community pharmacies could become integral to providing care in underserved or disadvantaged areas. With a focus on decentralising healthcare and bringing it closer to local communities, community pharmacies could play a more significant role in supporting healthcare delivery in areas where GP services are stretched. This may include expanding access to pharmacy services in the most deprived areas, aligning with Labour's emphasis on addressing health inequalities.