As if being back in Liverpool, where I was a student in the 1990’s, wasn’t strange enough I have been there over the last 36-hours to attend the LABOUR Party conference!
I seldom went to Conservative conference when I was a Conservative MP but these days it’s business and I have to say I could not have felt more welcome.
I was there with various clients and to speak at a number of fringe meetings; as well as to simply listen to the debate taking place.
No question health, and the prevention push in particular, was dominant on the fringe even if I don’t think for one moment Ministers have the political space to pursue the kind of interventionism in public health policy required.
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It’s fair to say, community pharmacy wasn’t dominant on the fringe - there was one event on the subject - but it was standing room only even if it was away from the conference zone in a room on the second floor of the Holiday Inn Express at the Albert Dock.
Credit nonetheless to Re:think (the think tank formerly known as Reform) for doing it and to Janet Morrison, Minister Stephen Kinnock and Sarah Woolnough from The King’s Fund for turning out.
Listening to any event on pharmacy (given I am the former Minister and one of the original policy architects of Pharmacy First) is almost as strange as walking past some of my former student hang-outs in a suit but we all want the sector to thrive and this government to succeed. The two are clearly linked.
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And while community pharmacy wasn’t all over this conference in terms, indirectly it was.
Neighbourhood health is one of the cornerstones of the NHS Ten Year Plan and the apple of the Ministers’ eye. Listening to the Re:think fringe this morning, I was reminded how in many ways community pharmacy has been doing exactly that for years.
It’s the most efficient part of the NHS family, the most productive and it’s literally on the high street.
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I wonder, as the 43 chosen areas crack on with putting in place their version of neighbourhood health, whether commissioners will fully integrate with the sector this time and finally help it realise its potential?
As Stephen Kinnock put it, neighbourhood health is not about inputs in the interests of the producer it’s about outputs so that should lend itself perfectly to a sector that is efficiently transactional and ruthlessly focused on ‘delivery, delivery, delivery’ for the public?
As ever, so much rests on what CPE can land from its next round of negotiation with my former department.
Both Janet Morrison and Stephen Kinnock were at pains to praise each other for the 19% uplift this year but the latter was swift to say it won’t be repeated. Honest.
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And the CPE chief executive was honest also to recognise there are community pharmacies who, right now, don’t know if they’ll make it to Christmas.
In her words, “if it’s a tough settlement next year we may be talking about what services are going to stop not what more can we add.” She’s not wrong.
I hope to see some of you, if you can get away, at The Pharmacy Show next month. Please do say hello if you see me or you’ll find me doing several events on Monday afternoon in the business suite.
Steve Brine is a consultant, podcaster, trustee, former MP for Winchester & chair of the Health Select Committee