Inside six years, community pharmacy has gone from a secure and sturdy £2.6bn five-year package to a £2.6bn shortfall. How’s that for an unpleasant coincidence?
Other shortfall amounts are available, but that £2.6bn came last year from an NHS economic analysis, no less. And now, one year on, negotiation time is upon us again. Talk of the potential for community pharmacy remains warm, but only a politician would dare to suggest things have improved.
So what will await CPE’s CEO Janet Morrison across the negotiating table as she asks for more?
Pushback? Health has been prioritised by Labour in terms of investment over education and defence. Labour has committed to spending £232bn a year on the NHS by 2028–29, more than twice as much as the £109bn it will spend on education. It claims record investment in community pharmacy and hot plans are afoot for the sector to do more.
Yet ‘brutal’ and ‘depressing’ are words community pharmacy has used to describe the NHS funding heading towards it.
The National Pharmacy Association has said anything less than an 8.9% uplift this time around will not cover inflation, increased wage costs and continuing growth in prescription volume.
It’s a familiar refrain, but an 8.9% uplift would require the existing £3.1bn to increase to around £3.4bn. Clearly that would still fall embarrassingly short of the five or six billion the NHS has determined the sector needs.
Read more: ‘Depressing’: pharmacies funded a ‘brutal’ £800m less than decade ago
Last year, any chagrin emanating from community pharmacy to the record deal that fell some way short of the amount everyone agrees is required was inevitable, understandable, and exacerbated by an interminable delay.
Tempers frayed. Stick was dispensed towards Community Pharmacy England in its role as negotiator. It’s possibly worth making the point – again – that CPE is not in a strong position given the funding amount is essentially non-negotiable.
It also joins an ever-increasing throng of deserving causes, in health and elsewhere, all perplexed to varying degrees by the impact of cuts, or coping with increases, and pleading a solid case for more. I imagine the Ministry of Defence has been hitting the phones.
Janet Morrison, CPE’s CEO, could boss negotiations, Stephen Kinnock could end up licking her shoes and complimenting their colour, but there is only a very slim chance of anything approaching generosity in terms of a figure given the paucity of the chancellor’s purse.
Bonuses?
So what else besides funding is on offer? Because that’s where leverage exists.
Will an expanded Pharmacy First see new additions with boosted ringfenced funding? A new national prescribing service?
And if so, could they, or any similar initiatives, please not resemble golden carrots nestled behind some sunny uplands, can they come with details and specifics and timelines present and correct?
GPs are having bonuses dangled for encouraging patients to swerve exercise and eating well to jab themselves with GLP-1s – why not a similar bonus for pharmacy, too?
And if we’re being very optimistic, business rates relief? I know the government is grasping for every penny it can find, not unlike much of the UK population, but - I am biased but I mean this objectively - community pharmacy deserves to avoid the punitive tax hikes so much of the high street is trying to endure.
Read more: ‘Real economic peril’, CPE warns Kinnock
My prediction for a topline figure is too gloomy, so I’ll keep that under wraps. But I want to hope that the evolution of the role community pharmacy is beginning to play in UK healthcare continues at pace – like it is doing with cancer, diabetes and blood pressure - and that it’s not just theoretical.
And – the very best of British luck to Janet Morrison and everyone at Community Pharmacy England, especially the negotiating team. We know you are in a dogfight and doing your utmost to take community pharmacy forwards.
