Pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock today (April 25) said that the NPA’s decision not to recommend collective action is “good news” for patients and pharmacies.
Today, the pharmacy body announced that it will not recommend collective action to its members after all, saying that last month’s pharmacy contract represented “a clear step forward after a decade of cuts”.
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The decision came in spite of a unanimous vote from its members in favour of protest action in November, and after the NPA claimed in January that it would “not hesitate” to recommend action if a funding deal did not meet “five key tests”.
Following the NPA’s retreat, Kinnock told The Mirror that “today’s decision is not just a victory for community pharmacies, but for millions of [patients] who rely on these vital local services every day”.
Read more: BREAKING: NPA U-turns on pharmacy collective action
“I look forward to working closely with the NPA as we build a stronger community care system with pharmacy at its heart,” he added.
“Pharmacies are integral to the fabric of our communities, and we want them to play a bigger role as we shift care out of hospitals through our plan for change,” he said.
“A step forward”
Last month, the NPA announced that it would recommend collective action – which would have involved pharmacies reducing their opening hours and withdrawing from locally commissioned services – from April 1.
But the body paused the plans to consult its members after the government announced a new funding deal.
At the time, NPA chair Nick Kaye criticised the new contract, saying that the remaining funding gap was “huge”.
Read more: Exclusive: NPA’s Nick Kaye - ‘We are suspending collective action and looking to the future’
“I don’t think the NPA board is in any mood to back down or U-turn...you have to now continue to apply pressure in the right way,” he added.
But today the chair said that the new deal “is a step forward after 11 years of funding squeezes” and that “it is clear that the government has inherited an intolerable situation”.
Kaye said that the NPA is still “concerned” that “despite much-needed additional investment, pharmacies will face a substantial gap”.
Read more: Nick Kaye: ‘The NPA isn’t in any mood to back down’
The body “will be watching closely to see if the additional investment will have a stabilising effect on the pharmacy network”, he added.
“We are glad that ministers have listened to patients and pharmacies,” he said.
Last month, pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock said that the NPA’s call for collective action was “premature, unnecessary and detrimental to community pharmacy patients”.
And in September, health secretary Wes Streeting criticised the NPA for “an unhelpful degree of sabre-rattling and threats of collective action” at the Labour Party conference.
Read more: Collective action! Pharmacies to cut hours and services from April 1
The comment came after the NPA protested poor funding with two “days of action” to raise awareness on the plight of the sector.
In June, community pharmacists around England took part in the first protest day by dimming their lights and wearing black.
And in September, they also rang bells to “sound the alarm about the crisis being faced by pharmacy”.
