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If you're thinking of heading a startup, owning a local pharmacy could be an incredibly lucrative opportunity. When you set up a business in the healthcare sector, it's important to ensure that you operate with transparency to keep yourself and your patients safe. Whether you've acquired pharmacies before or you're turning to a new venture with different partners, learning the relevant steps before getting involved is imperative. Successful pharmacies rely on medical expertise, professional knowledge, and an excellent quality of service. Step 1: Do you need qualifications to be a pharmacist? No matter if you already have a background in pharmacy or you're entering the field from an entrepreneurial perspective, you'll need to have the right qualifications. You can become a pharmacist by completing a Master of Pharmacy degree at a university. Your chosen course needs to be approved by the General Pharmaceutical Council and will take at least four years to complete. After your degree, you'll also need to take the one-year pharmacist foundation training scheme. To access these courses, you'll usually need two or three A levels, including Chemistry. Alternatively, you could do a pharmacy foundation degree if you only have one A level or equivalent.

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) will ask its members to vote on taking industrial action in order to bring to the public's attention the "slow death of community pharmacy", the organisation's chief executive has told Pharmacy Business. The NPA, which represents 6,000 community pharmacies across the UK, announced today that it will be sending a formal ballot to its members to vote on work to rule plans to protest against a decade of cuts to pharmacy funding. The ballot will ask pharmacies to consider a range of actions if the financial situation for pharmacies does not improve. This includes, reduction in services; cut hours to contract minimums; withdraw free deliveries or end the provision of free blister packs; cease to share data with the NHS unless it's a legal requirement; and consider serving notice on a range of locally contracted services, negotiated directly with local authorities. The ballot will be open for responses for six weeks and any action supported by a majority of pharmacies could take place before Christmas.

Community pharmacies are bracing themselves to withdraw services from patients after an industry ballot supported plans for major action unless the government provided a significant increase in funding for the sector. The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) on Tuesday (12) announced the results of an unprecedented collective action ballot in which nearly all pharmacy owners, who participated in the ballot, voted to limit their services, insisting that a lack of additional funding is jeopardising patients health and safety. Over 63 per cent of NPA members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland took part in the ballot- representing 3,049 independent community pharmacies in England alone, or 3,399 with Wales and Northern Ireland included. Nearly 98 per cent of pharmacy owners in England voted to reduce their opening hours to the minimum required by their contract. This could result in fewer pharmacies remaining open during evenings and weekends. More than 93 per cent voted to stop offering "unfunded" free home deliveries of medicines, and over 96 per cent voted to withdraw from locally commissioned services, including certain addiction support, emergency contraception, and stop smoking services.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee announced last week that it is in discussions with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England about relieving capacity pressures, such as a relaxation of pharmacy opening hours requirements. PSNC is also scheduling webinars to talk with contactors about the steps they might be willing to take in future, to cut costs, should emergency financial relief fail to materialise. The pharmacy regulator reported that many of its members felt that it was no longer tenable for pharmacies to keep offering all of the free and non-core services to patients that they would like to, and that all contractors should consider what steps they could take to try to safeguard their businesses and their core services for patients. PSNC is also keen to talk to contractors about their current situation and the steps they might be willing to take in future, should emergency relief not be forthcoming.

Recent NHS data sheds light on the evolving landscape of fit note certification, indicating a gradual expansion of roles beyond traditional medical practitioners to pharmacists and nurses. This uptake in numbers coincides with the Department of Work and Pensions's (DWP) call for evidence in relation to fit note reform which will remain open till 8 July 2024. According to figures published by NHS Digital, during the nine-month period from April 2023 to December 2023, pharmacists certified a significant number of fit notes. Approximately 1.4 per cent of fit notes of the 8 million were issued by pharmacists while the rest were issued by the GP surgeries reflecting the impact following legislative amendments in July 2022, which extended certification authority to pharmacists, nurses, occupational therapists, and physiotherapists. In June 2022, the Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) advised pharmacists not to sign fit notes where the required therapeutic, diagnostic, or examination skills lie outside their scope of competence. The association remarked that healthcare professionals needed mandatory training under the Health Education England before they are fit to issue fitness notes to the public.