“It would be bonkers not to work with doctors” where they have “commonalities” with pharmacists, Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA) chief executive Leyla Hannbeck has told C+D.
Speaking in an exclusive interview last week, she said the two professions have a “massive similar interest” when it comes to primary care funding.
“We need to work with doctors in order to get to where we need to be,” she added. “Pharmacy shouting on its own is not going to cut it.”
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The comments came after the IPA last month launched a joint petition with the Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) calling for increased investment in primary care.
Hannbeck told C+D that the IPA is “working with doctors to address the root cause of the problem, which is the funding for primary care being inadequate in comparison to the rest of the NHS”.
It “just makes sense to work with doctors on this” because “we all are in the same boat”, she said.
“Tangible solutions”
Hannbeck emphasised that the IPA is a “very strategic association”, telling C+D that the body doesn’t “just kick around and take selfies with politicians to say we met with somebody”.
She said the body was instrumental in securing the one-off MenB vaccine service commissioned through community pharmacies from this July.
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“We were the only organisation that called for it in the media and elsewhere, and lobbied with politicians and stakeholders”, she said.
“I don’t find any other organisation has achieved tangible solutions.”
Contract frustrations
It is no secret that the IPA did not support the community pharmacy contract announced in May, with Hannbeck saying at the time that the funding “falls significantly short of what is required”.
Hannbeck said all five IPA members on the Community Pharmacy England board voted to reject the proposed contract, while the majority of the board voted in favour.
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She said the IPA’s stance has “always been that if the contract is not suitable, we would rather have it imposed than vote for it - because when you have something imposed, then at least we can challenge it”.
One of Hannbeck’s main issues with this year’s contract is the “ridiculously low” fee offered for the national independent prescribing (IP) service that was announced as part of the deal.
In the contract, the government revealed that pharmacies will be paid £17 per consultation delivered under the new IP service’s prescribing pathways, the same fee provided for “other Pharmacy First clinical pathways and minor illness consultations”.
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Hannbeck told C+D that while she is “not criticising” other trade bodies, the IPA votes “based on what we feel our members would want” - and that the last contract, particularly around IP, was “not something that was going to be acceptable to us”.
“It just doesn’t make sense to vote for something that is not good for this sector and then try to defend it,” she said. “If you don’t vote for it, yes it gets imposed, but at least we’ve been true to our cause.”
Business rate “shenanigans”
Earlier this week, the IPA launched a campaign calling for an end to the business rates disparities between pharmacies and other NHS providers like GPs and dentists.
Hannbeck told C+D that this is just the start of the IPA’s work to address the “shenanigans around business rates and community pharmacies”.
“Particularly now that pubs have got a discount on their business rates, it just doesn’t make sense that pharmacies, who are at the heart of communities, are not getting that,” she said.
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Another reform Hannbeck and the IPA are pushing for is the reintroduction of medicines use reviews (MURs) to combat polypharmacy.
The body proposed MURs as a “quick win” for the community pharmacy sector last month, and Hannbeck said the move is “just common sense”.
“We are medicines experts, right? So it’s something that you don’t need huge training in,” she added.
She said it is something that “could be done very easily” with “immense benefits for the NHS”.
“Appeasement will not work”
Looking ahead, Hannbeck stressed to C+D that the IPA will remain as steadfast in the upcoming contract negotiations as ever before.
“We will never be worried or scared to say what the realities are,” she said, adding that if the next contract “doesn’t fit the needs and priorities of our members, we will not accept it”.
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“It is better to be truthful to what you really think is right than accepting something that is half-baked,” she said.
“The strategy of appeasement will not work.”
