Some people saw it live at The Pharmacy Show, others read about it on social media groups. I sigh in despair.
If I’m honest though, does it really affect me day to day with the work I do? I suppose it doesn’t, as ultimately CPE are the negotiators, so surely, we should be looking at them to fight for a better deal for all of us (they have no vested interest and it’s their job to get the best deal for all pharmacies regardless of their sector).
Everything else is simply a distraction away from my day-to-day job. In fact, scrolling on social media was what I did in my downtime, as a form of relaxing. I never really understood the meaning of doom scrolling. Now however, after a long day at work social media is no longer enjoyable, it can be so toxic and so depressing.
Rumours
I hope that we find unity with all the trade bodies and CPE together – we cannot wait for this, we need it now, as negotiations are about to get started. Anything other than unity will simply weaken our position.
In other news, the budget announcement last week wasn’t as shocking as I had expected. Mainly because there had been so many rumours beforehand that we knew the government needed money.
Read More: IPA warns ‘wrecking ball’ budget will cost sector over £125m
Whilst it’s great to see investment in the NHS we need to understand if the government see us as the NHS, or are we seen as a business (generally for most pharmacies 90% of their business is NHS).
I suspect from recent comments from various ministers, that it’s the later. We are seen as a business. It looks as though GPs are being viewed in the same way, something we’ve always known but not something that the public know or understand.
NI increases and national living wage increases are likely to lead to a further closures of community pharmacies, or further cuts in staffing leading to more pressure for those that remain.
Read More: BMA’s top GP warns budget will ‘break’ pharmacies – but less than GPs
Regardless of any workforce and well-being surveys that are carried out, if the funding is not there, it will be impossible to staff pharmacies to the numbers that are needed to ensure good well-being for all staff and great patient care.
I’ve seen comments, such as people need to change their business model and deliver more private services.
Some of the numbers I’ve seen of people stating how much private business they are generating for community pharmacy (again on social media) doesn’t quite stack up, but perhaps I’m thinking of the pharmacies around our area who are not doing huge numbers of private services.
We do need to change our business model, but that requires a culture shift. Similar to the NHS really. We can keep throwing money at it, but ultimately there needs to be a huge culture shift for things to really change. I hope I see that in my lifetime, though I’m not holding my breath.