Pharmacy's strong and "joined-up" national leadership was vital to securing £1.5 million in research funding for the sector last week, pharmacy and public health forum chair Richard Parish has claimed.

Speaking at the C+D Senate on public health on Wednesday (November 6), Mr Parish said that funding announced by the chief medical officer the previous day for research into how community pharmacy should develop would not exist without the efforts of the national leaders of the profession.

Mr Parish acknowledged that there were clear "territorial issues" between the various pharmacy bodies such as PSNC, the NPA, Pharmacy Voice and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

"I've been an advocate for community pharmacy for 30 years and I've never seen such an opportunity for pharmacy to grasp," said pharmacy and public health forum chair Richard Parish	More on pharmacy leadership Government will cut numbers if pharmacies don't up their services, PSNC warns Too many pharmacies, says England's chief pharmacist LPCs call for research levy on contractors
	But he had "rarely seen" such a joined-up approach in the health sector. "You won't see most of what goes on behind the scenes, but without that type of approach, we wouldn't be seeing £1.5m made available for research and discussions about funding for an implementation plan," Mr Parish argued. "Pharmacy can hold its head up high."

Pharmacy must seize the opportunities presented by the funding, stressed Mr Parish, who is also non-executive director of the Public Health England advisory board. "I've been an advocate for community pharmacy for 30 years and I've never seen such an opportunity for pharmacy to grasp," he told the Senate. "Equally, if it's not grasped now, I don't think it will be there in two or three years' time."

Mr Parish echoed warnings that pharmacies would close unless the sector was willing to change. PSNC first warned that the pharmacy network was at risk last month, and England's chief pharmaceutical officer Keith Ridge expressed concerns there were too many pharmacies earlier this week.

"The status quo is absolutely not an option," stressed Mr Parish. "If pharmacy doesn't change, there will be without a doubt significantly fewer pharmacies in a few years' time, so this is a business survival issue."