EXCLUSIVE

The National Pharmacy Association's (NPA) campaign to overturn cuts to pharmacy funding will not end now that its petition has received over one million signatures, it has said.

The organisation hopes to present the petition to Downing Street on May 24 – the same day a government consultation on the cuts is due to close – NPA head of communications Stephen Fishwick told C+D today (May 3).

Find out what else the NPA has in store below.

Will gaining one million signatures be the end of the campaign?

No, definitely not. We’ve always felt that this [campaign] is ultimately a battle for hearts and minds. It’s months, possibly years long. It is very important in this initial phase during the consultation period to make it clear to the government that its plans aren’t acceptable. But it’s certainly not the end of the story for the campaign

Will you try other approaches?

As far as the NPA’s concerned, we’re ready to sustain the campaign and to escalate it if necessary. We’ll definitely continue to mobilise public support. We will want to refocus on parliament and the constituency MPs. 

The other element is being able to define what we as a sector want to happen, because that’s equally as important as saying to the government, "We don’t want what you’ve put on the table". It has to be a positive prospectus for evolution and improvement, so that sort of goes alongside it.

What sort of reaction do you realistically think the government will have to the petition? Do you think it could reverse the cuts?

To fail to notice the depth and the breadth of the concerns that have been expressed by patients across the country would be willfully turning a blind eye to [those] concerns.

These aren’t just signatures on a piece of paper. Behind the numbers are actual people with actual healthcare needs. We get carried away with talking about signatures, but actually, what do these signatures represent? They represent genuine, deep and widespread concern.