DEI has become a dirty word in the world of Donald Trump.
Some UK organisations including the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and BT have followed suit in cutting diversity, equity and inclusion targets.
But sitting down with C+D last week, new NPA chair Olivier Picard says the importance of diversity is “partly” why he’s here.
Read more: BREAKING: Olivier Picard named as new NPA chair
The NPA’s board has been dramatically recast since last month’s elections. Now it’s almost 30% female, features its first ever female vice chair, while Picard, who trained in his native France, is its “first non-UK qualified chair”.
Read more: NPA appoints ‘first female vice chair’ as new chair revealed
“The average age of the board has gone down overnight by over 10 years, it is more diverse than it has ever been,” Picard tells C+D.
Bodies “united”?
What’s on the agenda for the NPA’s sparkling new leadership? “When we get to [2026/27 contract] negotiation in the autumn I want Community Pharmacy England (CPE) to be held to account,” he says.
“I really think that the contract that we have needs to be reformed in England”.
Beyond ever-urgent contract negotiations, aligning the sector’s many fractured pharmacy bodies is another ongoing issue that the fresh-faced board hopes to tackle.
Read more: ‘I saw the King chatting to Lionel Richie’: Nick Kaye’s last month as NPA chair
While historic tensions have stood between the bodies, Picard has never been one to bow to the status quo – readers might remember his campaign against a council ban on the illuminated pharmacy signs adorning his Twyford pharmacy.
“The Independent Pharmacy Contractors Network (IPCN) has energy. The Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA) has a message. This energy and this message are no different to the ones that I have and that the NPA team has,” he tells C+D.
Read more: ‘Collective voice’: IPA and NPA pen joint letter over economic review
“We need to have [these messages] aligned so that we look united, because the division is what the department and the NHS has been using against us for all that time,” he adds.
“Do we need another organisation that divides the profession like IPCN, or any other?…Of course not, everybody will agree that we do not.
“This is why…I’m hoping that we can work together."
The “French model”
Will the newly international board look to the “French model” of pharmacy, as former health secretary Matt Hancock told C+D the sector ought to do in 2018?
“Interestingly enough, all my colleagues on the board of the NPA started to call me the French model [at the time],” Picard reflects.
“But my counterparts in France are light years behind, absolute light years,” he says.
Read more: Health secretary wants pharmacy to follow ‘French model’, he tells C+D
“They can’t even dream of a Pharmacy First service, providing weight loss consultation, ear micro suction or chicken pox vaccinations.
“Matt Hancock went on holiday, he probably had an insect bite, and he got a good experience because he went into a pharmacy that was air conditioned and probably had a recent refit.”
But he stresses that “in order to do that [in the UK] you just need to fund the sector so we can invest in our staff, we can invest in our premises, and we can stay relevant and fresh for our communities.”
“Why?”
When it comes to the big questions on his new role, Picard asks them before C+D can.
“I’m all about the ‘why’ – Why am I here at the NPA? Why do I do what I do in my pharmacies?
“Going back to the ‘why’, partly why I’m here is because I think we are getting closer and closer to what our membership really looks like out there,” he says.
“We don’t agree on everything, I can tell you that much, but that’s healthy,” he adds.
Read more: Nick Kaye: ‘The NPA isn’t in any mood to back down’
While “there is still some work to do” on diversifying the board, he thinks “we are getting closer and closer to what our membership really looks like out there.
“We have discussions, and when the discussion is over, then we are friends again. Every decision we make has our members best interests at heart.”
Read more: Exclusive: NPA’s Nick Kaye - ‘We are suspending collective action and looking to the future’
Here is where the younger, fresher and more diverse NPA board is not so different to those that have come before it, Picard tells C+D.
“Nick Kaye and I are not different – he’s a pharmacy owner, he works in pharmacy, and he gets it – we are the same.
“We want to see our contract reformed so that it works for independent pharmacies. And that it inspires the next generation of community pharmacists to not want to go and work in a GP surgery, but in the community”.
Get to know Olivier:
- Status: Married with children
- Best piece of advice you’ve ever received: “What got you here is what’s going to get you to two years down the line” – advice from his best friend after Picard told him of his new NPA role
- Favourite book: “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek
- Favourite medicine: “Insulin –because that's the one that's keeping me alive, I am a type one diabetic”
- Least favourite medicine: “Weight loss medications, because they being abused by unscrupulous people…I think it's a danger to patients”
- Death row meal: To answer this question, Picard tells C+D that two years ago, he underwent a weight loss journey for a Patagonian endurance horse race – “for the horse’s benefit”.
“It was over 10 days on a horse, camping, feeding yourself on a stove, no telephone, no technology, no electricity.
"If you'd asked me that question two years ago, I would have probably said a pizza or a burger.”
Now? “It's a really difficult question to answer, but I can tell you something – it would be a healthy one.”
