Community Pharmacy England (CPE) chief executive Janet Morrison has cautioned that some “core” services could be removed from pharmacies if negotiations for the next contract do not result in a sufficient funding uplift.
Speaking exclusively to C+D at the Pharmacy Show in Birmingham earlier this month, she said that the negotiator will have to “look really hard at what services are most important”.
Read more: CPE warns of ‘gloomy outlook’ for next pharmacy contract
Morrison’s comments came in response to a question from C+D on whether any community pharmacy services would have to be stopped as part of future negotiations if funding is not sufficient.
“I wouldn’t really want to go that far,” she said initially, but later warned that there may be some services the government can no longer afford.
“The problem is [that] if ministers were to give us more money, they normally want something new to talk about” in return, she explained.
“Strip them out”
Morrison noted that Pharmacy First, hypertension and contraception services are currently accounted for in pharmacy funding structures and are “a big priority for the government”.
And she suggested that these services could be used “as a negotiating issue”.
But she warned that “there may be other services in the core that you’d say ‘you really can’t afford it, so strip them out’”.
Read more: Exclusive video interview: Janet Morrison: ‘If it’s a bad deal...’
There are “difficult choices” to be made, Morrison stressed, adding that she doesn’t “know where [the sector is] going to land” and that CPE is “having to think about all of the potential consequences”.
Meanwhile, the CPE chief executive argued that the current contract is “not fully optimised” and that the sector “is not getting the best value out of it”.
Rather than adding “another service” to community pharmacies, “the priority should be really building on what we’ve got” to “maximise the current contract”, she said.
Prescribing service “second priority”
“I think...using Pharmacy First and independent prescribing (IP) and all of that potential in terms of [a] prescribing service is...second priority,” Morrison added.
But she warned that some CPE committee members are “fearful” that if an IP service isn’t created, IPs won’t be “used properly” in community pharmacies.
If this happens, some may worry that IPs are “gone” and will “never come [back]” – “they want a destination so that they can use IPs coming out”, she added.
Read more: Day Lewis: Pharmacy doesn’t need ‘new contract’ but ‘tweaks’
It comes after Morrison told C+D in an exclusive video interview that September – the expected month for 2026/27 negotiations to begin – was “always optimistic”.
“My expectation is that [CPE] will have started negotiations before Christmas,” she said.
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Meanwhile, she told delegates at a Pharmacy Show keynote that her “latest indication” is that CPE “won’t be starting negotiations before November” – and that the outlook is “gloomy”.
Also speaking at the Pharmacy Show, Day Lewis executive director Sam Patel suggested that the next contract does not need to be overhauled but instead simply “tweaked”.
