National pharmacy bodies have called on the government and NHS leaders to take appropriate action to keep pharmacy teams safe from violence and abuse.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) - in collaboration with the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp), the Company Chemists'
Association (CCA), the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) - is supporting an important petition started by Mike Hewitson,
a community pharmacy contractor, who has been threatened with stabbing and robbed in his own pharmacy.
The PSNC and the other national pharmacy bodies strongly believe that no healthcare professional should have to deal with this, that and pharmacists and their teams
should be better protected.
It said: "Community pharmacies play an integral role in the delivery of primary care and most patients are highly appreciative of the hard work of local pharmacists
and pharmacy teams from dispensing medicines and administering vaccines to providing medical advice and health monitoring services.
England's chief pharmaceutical officer (CPhO) David Webb has promised his "wholehearted support" for the community pharmacy sector at the board meeting of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) on 28 June in St Albans.
After hearing the CPhO at the meeting, NPA chair, Andrew Lane, later declared: "David is someone we can do business with."
Webb thus listed his priorities as head of profession: integration of independent prescribing as part of pharmacy practice by 2026; promotion of inclusive pharmacy
practice for all pharmacy professionals; assurance of post-registration practice; developing the role of pharmacy technicians; support for Integrated Care Systems
and Primary Care Network pharmacy teams (including community pharmacy); medicines optimisation; and strengthening of professional leadership for community pharmacy.
He also reported that NHS England had recently increased its team of regional pharmacy integration leads from seven to 14, creating seven new senior posts.
Webb told NPA board members: "I want sincerely to thank community pharmacy teams for everything they are doing and to say that you have my wholehearted support. I believe in the importance of community pharmacy and will listen and engage as I've already demonstrated.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, during today's (15th May ) Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs), reiterated his commitment to supporting community pharmacies amidst
growing concerns over pharmacy closures.
Addressing questions regarding the Pharmacy First initiative, Sunak assured the House of Commons of his dedication to bolstering resources for these vital healthcare
providers.
In response to a query raised by Member of Parliament, St Ives MP Derek Thomas, citing statistics from the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) about "committing to
directing funds towards Community Pharmacy to alleviate financial pressure and prevent closures, Sunak remarked that he "cares deeply about the future of community
pharmacies."
Sunak acknowledged the indispensable role played by community pharmacists in alleviating pressure on urgent care services, emphasising the importance of initiatives
like Pharmacy First in government's commitment to supporting community pharmacies.
"There are over 10 and a half Community pharmacies across the country working incredibly hard to serve their patients," Sunak said praising the community pharmacists
and highlighted the concerning trend of pharmacy closures, citing a significant increase compared to the previous year.
Representatives from the national community pharmacy bodies will brief the MPs on the severe challenges facing community pharmacies on Tuesday (21 March) at a
roundtable summit.
The roundtable summit will include discussions on the urgent action needed to address the current severe challenges being faced by community pharmacy, as well as the
sector's role in the upcoming Primary Care Recovery Plan, said PSNC.
The Parliamentary event this week has been coordinated by PSNC as part of the joint #SaveOurPharmacies campaign which exceeded 30,000 signatories in a week.
The Association of Independent Pharmacies (AIM), the Company Chemists' Association (CCA), the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) and PSNC will take part at the
event.
A spokesperson for the #SaveOurPharmacies campaign group said: "30,000 signatures in a week indicates a high level of underlying public support for community pharmacy
and it's a good start to the #SaveOurPharmacies campaign. A petition by itself won't change the world, but it works as a kind of drumbeat for the campaign, giving
forward momentum, and it's a really easy way to express your opinion.
We hope the new window poster - along with all the resources available at saveourpharmacies.co.uk - will help as many pharmacies as possible to drum up support from
their patients, and we're really grateful to Communications International Group for helping us to print and distribute this.
The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPHC), Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), Company Chemists Association (CCA), Association of Pharmacy
Technicians UK (APTUK), National Pharmacy Association (NPA), Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists, Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA), and Independent
Pharmacies Association (IPA) have released a joint statement in response to the far-right riots across the UK.
They emphasised their united stance, declaring zero tolerance for racism towards colleagues or the public in any form.
The joint statement reads: "We are shocked and saddened by the violent public disorder events in recent days.
"We acknowledge how all sectors of the pharmacy profession may be impacted and recognise the challenges that this level of overt aggression can have on
people's ability or willingness to live their daily lives.
"The pharmacy workforce deserves peace and safety, not fear and harm. We stand united in having a zero tolerance of racism towards our colleagues or the
public in whatever form it takes."
Meanwhile, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has expressed concerns that protests and violent disorder in various towns and cities across England may impact
the ability of community pharmacies to operate.
Pharmacy bodies and MPs discussed on support needed to unlock the "full potential" of community pharmacy at the All Pharmacy Party Group (APPG)'s general
meeting held in Westminster on Tuesday (01 November).
The attendees of the meeting were Janet Morrison OBE, Chief Executive of Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee; Malcolm Harrison, Chief Executive of The
Company Chemists' Association; Thorrun Govind, Chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society; Sanjeev Panesar, National Pharmacy Association Board Member, and Pharmacist
Superintendent and Owner of the Pan Pharmacy Group; and Sandeep Dhami, Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies member and superintendent at MW Phillips Chemist
At the session, 18 parliamentarians were briefed on the myriad of ways pharmacies contribute to the health of the nation.
The panel of experts also highlighted that pharmacists are 'running out of fuel' with the growing challenges such as flat funding, workforce shortages and the
cost-of-living crisis impacting pharmacies' ability to deliver vital services.
Amid the ongoing furore over shortages of Lateral Flow Device (LFD) test kits that led pharmacy staff to bear customers' wrath, the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) and Company Chemists Association (CCA) have jointly appealed the public to be "patient and courteous to pharmacy teams".
In an open letter, the two organisations have urged patients and customers to be patient, courteous and safe while visiting their local pharmacies.
Highlighting the efforts put in by healthcare workers to keep everyone safe through this tough winter, the two organisations said the pressure of Covid-19 and shortage of LFD kits have sometimes led to verbal abuse of pharmacy staff.
Mark Lyonette, NPA chief executive said: "The vast majority of pharmacy customers and patients are polite and understanding. The supply situation with Lateral Flow Tests is stretching people's patience, but that's no excuse for abusive behaviour and people need to understand the constraints on pharmacy teams at this time."
Alongside their routine job of providing medicines, health advice and a range of NHS services, pharmacies have put in extra effort to protect people during the pandemic.
"I dread the day, the accountant turns to me and says 'this isn't working' - as an owner, we shelter our patients and teams from the financial pressures
we feel on a daily basis," shares S.G Barai Pharmacy owner, Reena Barai.
Today, S.G Barai Pharmacy in Sutton, Surrey joined pharmacies nationwide in the #SaveOurPharmacies day of action, organised by the National Pharmacy Association
(NPA) to spotlight the critical funding crisis facing community pharmacies across the UK.
Recent figures reveal that over the past decade, more than 1,400 pharmacies have closed in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, with additional closures looming
in Scotland due to financial pressures.
The NPA reports that three-quarters of pharmacies are operating at a loss, exacerbated by real-terms cuts to funding.
"We turned our lights off and wore black today to symbolize the precarious situation pharmacies like ours are facing," said Reena Barai who owns the pharmacy.
Pharmacy bodies have urged the Health Select Committee to hold the government to account on pharmacy funding and workforce challenges.
In a show of unity, leaders from the sector came together to write a joint letter to the chair of the committee and former health secretary Jeremy Hunt and bring to
his attention how financial pressures worsened by nearly a decade of a real-term decrease in funding have made the sector virtually untenable.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC)'s recently published 'Pharmacy Pressures Survey' confirms how this has had an impact on pharmacy contractors,
their teams as well as patients.
The survey found that 91 per cent of pharmacies are experiencing staff shortages. At the same time, demand for community pharmacists has risen - nine in ten pharmacy
teams reported a significant increase in phone calls from patients about prescriptions, and 86 per cent reported a rise in requests for healthcare advice.
The letter to Jeremy Hunt is signed on behalf of the four chief executives of the PSNC, the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp), the Company
Chemists' Association (CCA) and the National Pharmacy Association (NPA).
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has called for immediate intervention by Health Secretary Neil Gray to compensate pharmacies left in financial
chaos due to flaws in Scotland's new pharmacy payment system.
Introduced last year, the system was designed to streamline payments to pharmacies, dispensing doctors, and medical appliance suppliers. However, the NPA, which
represents independent pharmacies across the UK, reported that many pharmacies were facing repeated shortfalls in expected funding under the system.
Some pharmacies have encountered discrepancies of tens of thousands pounds due to errors in the Data Capture Validation & Pricing process introduced by NHS National
Services Scotland.
In other cases, NHS Boards have clawed back money from pharmacies at short notice, following processing errors that had initially resulted in an overpayment.
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has raised its concerns over rising cost of rent for its members.
The association highlighted that pharmacy spending is shrinking, and therefore, the NHS Property Services must ensure viability of health centre pharmacies.
In May, the NPA wrote to NHS Property Services to voice its concerns over the rising cost of rent after some of its members reported demands for a three-fold increase in rent.
Many pharmacies operate in premises of which NHS Property Services is the landlord.
In a letter last month to chief executive Martin Steele, NPA said: "The past years have seen far fewer patients in health centres and therefore using the on-site pharmacy - whilst the situation will change somewhat as we move out of the pandemic we expect a permanent impact on workload as practices handle more of their interactions virtually.
"The NPA encourages NHS Property Services to review lease agreements involving community pharmacies and consider favourable changes to terms that are in line with
current financial realities affecting the sector. This could avoid the loss of a pharmacy service to communities and the resulting loss of rental income to NHS Property Services."
The Health and Social Care Committee (HSCC) has announced the appointment of six specialists to scrutinise the government's progress made on its commitments
to pharmacy services in England on Wednesday (26 April).
"They will work alongside the core members of the Expert Panel to produce a report evaluating Government progress across nine of the Government's own commitments
across the four areas. A CQC-style rating from "inadequate" to "outstanding" will be awarded against each specific pledge with a final overall rating given," said
DHSC.
Professor Dame Jane Dacre, Chair of the Expert Panel, said: "The role of pharmacy in delivering care whether in hospital, the community or primary care has never
been more important.
"The Government has made a number of commitments aimed at improving pharmacy services and we'll be looking at the progress to achieve these targets.
"In the process of our evaluation we'll be hearing from stakeholders from across the industry, including the pharmacy workforce and NHS and independent providers
of pharmacy services. We'll be considering pledges covering frontline services as well as the education and training of the workforce."
National Pharmacy Association (NPA) chief executive, Mark Lyonette, is one of six panel members with specialist expertise in pharmacy. They will work alongside five
standing members who are all renowned healthcare policy experts and professionals. Professor Dame Jane Dacre will chair.
In a powerful display of unity, thousands of pharmacies across the UK participated in a nationwide protest today, organised by the National Pharmacy
Association (NPA), as part of its #saveourpharmacies campaign.
The NPA's day of action was aimed at drawing attention to the severe crisis in pharmacy funding that has forced 1,400 pharmacies to close over the past decade
and left thousands more struggling.
Participating pharmacies showed their protest through various actions like dimming lights, blacking out their windows, wearing black for the day, or discussing
pharmacy funding with customers. Many pharmacies also seized the opportunity to interact with parliamentary candidate, urging them to address the funding crisis.
A snap survey conducted by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) revealed that over half of community pharmacy teams have felt unsafe in the past week
due to ongoing riots across the country.
The survey, which included responses from approximately 350 community pharmacies, also found that one in three pharmacies had considered closing because of
safety concerns, while 13 per cent of pharmacy teams reported experiencing racist comments during this period.
According to the NPA, over 40 per cent of pharmacists are of South Asian, Black, or other ethnic minority backgrounds, with the majority of independent community
pharmacy owners believed to be of South Asian heritage.
The association reports that businesses had been vandalised during the riots, leading some pharmacies to reduce their opening hours or close entirely, following
advice from the police and local authorities.
Despite a recent decline in disorder over the last few days, police have been advised to remain on high alert over the weekend.
The Conservative Party Prime Ministerial candidate Rishi Sunak visited Bassett Pharmacy in Southampton on Wednesday (Aug 24) - the pharmacy that used to be
run by his family.
During the visit, Sunak is reported to have said that he intends to reform the NHS and achieve value for money from health spending, should he become prime minister.
Giving his reaction to the visit, National Pharmacy Association (NPA) chief executive Mark Lyonette said: "If Rishi Sunak is serious about NHS reform, he would do
well to start with a 'pharmacy first' approach to prevention and treatment which has the potential to transform the way people access NHS care.
"That can only happen with a sustained increase in funding for our sector, which is facing much harder times now than it ever did when Mr Sunak's parents owned a
pharmacy years ago."
Earlier in the week, NPA board member Hiten Patel met the former chancellor when he visited West Harrow for a campaign event on August 23. Patel took the opportunity
to explain that pharmacies in England are not being properly supported to fulfil their potential within the NHS.
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) is distributing new campaign materials to pharmacies across England this week to empower them to advocate for fair
funding in the forthcoming general election.
These include campaign posters, stickers, postcards for patients to send to MPs and petition materials.
By supplying these resources, the NPA aims to boost its cross-sector #SaveOurPharmacies campaign and help pharmacies raise local and national awareness of the
funding crisis that is forcing pharmacies to close at the rate of 10 a week.
NPA chief executive Paul Rees said: "Pharmacies are under crushing financial pressure. We want to help them join our efforts to raise the profile of the funding
crisis and make the public and politicians fully aware of the threat to our much-loved pharmacy network.
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has warned of multi-million financial hit for community pharmacies, while the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating
Committee (PSNC) has renewed its calls for urgent financial support amid a looming energy bill crisis.
NPA board member, Olivier Picard, this week shared a screenshot of his estimated electricity bill on WhatsApp groups. Upon expiration of his current arrangements,
in October, his electricity bill could rise from its current £1,821 for one pharmacy to an estimated £6,914 - a near fourfold increase.
Piccard said: "This is an eye-watering rise in costs for my own pharmacies and adds to the intense financial pressure we're already under. My standing charges will
multiply by 10 and the overall cost to each pharmacy amounts to about £5,000."
His comments come just ahead of an NPA-commissioned report into pharmacy inflation which will provide an analysis of inflationary costs pressing on the community
pharmacy sector, from utilities and workforce to medicines purchasing.
Health secretary Sajid Javid visited Medicine Chest Pharmacy in London on Friday (January 28) and thanked pharmacy teams across England for delivering well over 20 million Covid-19 jabs.
According to the latest research conducted by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) and PharmData, independent community pharmacies were the biggest deliverers of Covid-19 vaccines during January 2021 to September 2021 as compared to corporate-run pharmacy sites.
As of January 2022, pharmacies across the whole sector had delivered 22 million Covid jabs, with the majority of them being independents of whom most are NPA members.
In a video message released after the visit, Javid said: "Today I am here at Medicine Chest pharmacy in London to thank them, all pharmacies, the NHS, for the fantastic job they have done particularly over the last few months to get our country boosted. It's because of this phenomenal success that today we are able to return to Plan A as we see Omicron in retreat and we learn to live with Covid."
There is clear evidence that the majority of distance selling pharmacies are operating in breach of their NHS contracts, and a failure to properly
regulate 'pseudo' distance selling pharmacies is leading to local pharmacy closures, the Company Chemists' Association has reported.
According to the CCA's recent findings, 72 per cent of DSPs dispense over 50 per cent of their prescriptions to patients within a single postcode area within
10 miles of the pharmacy.
"Operating within constrained geographical regions, pseudo-DSPs achieve reduced overheads and operational costs by focusing on localised marketing and medicine
delivery. They compete against local brick-and-mortar pharmacies, causing them to lose vital trade," the CCA claimed, based on its recent survey - The Impact of
Pseudo Distance Selling Pharmacies.
"As per their terms of service, DSPs are obligated to provide prescription delivery nationwide, extending beyond local patients," said the CCA, adding that the
financial savings resulting from the lack of patient access are balanced by the necessity to function on a national scale.
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has commissioned Professor David Taylor of University College London to investigate the implications of all-time high
inflation rates on community pharmacies in the UK.
Professor Taylor's will assess rates of inflation affecting community pharmacy across the UK, using public data sources whilst examining inflated costs in the
context of the current five year contractual framework in England (2019-2024).
He would review the EY (Ernst & Young) report into pharmacy funding, to identify whether current inflationary pressures could change any of the findings and
consider the policy implications and impacts of inflationary pressures, including pharmacy's ability to prepare for a more clinically focused future and maintain
current core services.
NPA chief executive Mark Lyonette said: "Inflationary pressures are eating into the limited funds provided by the NHS for pharmacy services. We believe the real
level of inflation for pharmacy businesses could be higher than the CPI inflation rate, which itself is at a 40 year high. Staff and locum costs in the sector as
well as medicines costs have risen dramatically.