The majority of respondents to a C+D snap poll have said that they do not agree with the NPA calling off historic pharmacy collective action.
Last week, the pharmacy body announced that it would not recommend collective action to its members after all, saying that the new pharmacy contract represents “a clear step forward after a decade of cuts”.
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”.
Read more: BREAKING: NPA U-turns on pharmacy collective action
C+D’s snap poll asked readers whether the NPA made the right decision in calling off the plans – which would have involved pharmacies reducing their opening hours and withdrawing from locally commissioned services.
Some 60% of the 116 readers who responded to the poll, which closed yesterday (April 28), said that they did not agree with the decision.
Almost a fifth (19%) said they were not sure, while just 21% of respondents agreed with the NPA’s decision.
“They will ignore us”
Commenting on the decision last week on social media platform X, former NPA chief executive Michael Holden said that it was a “good call”.
He added that it is time for the body to “focus on a business plan based on what the sector now knows it has”.
Read more: Kinnock: No collective action ‘a victory for community pharmacies’
But pharmacist Tony Schofield disagreed, commenting on X that “there is more to focus on” and that the sector now knows that it does not have “the goodwill of Wes Streeting”.
In September, health secretary Streeting criticised the NPA for “an unhelpful degree of sabre-rattling and threats of collective action” at the Labour Party conference.
Meanwhile, pharmacy manager Konstantinos Iliadis commented that “the contract is not a win, it’s a draw at best” on LinkedIn.
Read more: Exclusive: NPA’s Nick Kaye - ‘We are suspending collective action and looking to the future’
“Once again we made noise [but] did not move forward with any action,” he said.
“They will once again ignore us as they have historically done for 15 years now,” he added.
“Lots of different views”
The NPA today (April 30) told C+D that it appreciates “there are still lots of different views about the way forward, as this LinkedIn sample [poll] shows”.
“We strongly believe that our ballot and our campaign has put community pharmacy on the map like never before and fundamentally changed the national conversation around pharmacies” including by delivering “more money” for the sector, it added.
Read more: Collective action – has the NPA lost some respect?
“We’ve also been clear that much more needs to be done,” it said.
“As the situation on the ground evolves, we’ll always choose the tactics and take the opportunities that we believe will give the best result both for our members and the millions of people they support every day,” it added.
“U-turn”?
The NPA decision came after the new funding deal prompted the body to pause its plans to recommend pharmacy collective action from April 1 while it consulted its members.
But earlier this month, Kaye said that the membership body wasn’t in “any mood to back down” in an exclusive interview with C+D.
Read more: Kinnock: Collective action is ‘premature, unnecessary and detrimental’
“I definitely wouldn’t be thinking about a U-turn,” he said at the time when pressed on plans for collective action.
Pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock last week said that the NPA’s decision not to recommend collective action is “a victory for community pharmacies”.
