The NPA today (April 25) 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”.
The news comes after 99% of polled English NPA members voted for protest action – which would have involved pharmacies reducing their opening hours and withdrawing from locally commissioned services – in November if no substantial sector funding increase was agreed.
Vote in the poll: Do you think the NPA made the right call?
The body had reiterated protest plans last month, when it announced it would “start the process” of collection action from April 1 after the government failed to deliver funding that met the NPA’s “five key tests”.
These included “an above-inflation increase in the global sum” that covers National Insurance (NI) and national living wage increases and “payment in arrears for 2024/25” in a lump sum.
Read more: Nick Kaye: ‘The NPA isn’t in any mood to back down’
But now the NPA has decided against the protest action and revealed that it wants “to work with the government to…bring care closer to communities through reform of primary care with community pharmacy at its heart”.
It said that it “understood that individual pharmacies might still have to take steps to save costs” but ultimately decided that “it would not recommend co-ordinated protest action”.
Read more: Exclusive: NPA’s Nick Kaye - ‘We are suspending collective action and looking to the future’
It added that its members remain “deeply concerned that investment remained significantly below estimated costs” and urged “ministers to start discussions on reform”.
The NPA said that it was “proud of the campaign it has run, which has significantly raised the political profile of the crisis facing community pharmacy”.
It added that the campaign “helped put more money on the table for pharmacy services”.
“Watching closely”
“After much careful deliberation, we have decided not to recommend our members take collective action in light of [the 2025/26 pharmacy contract], which we hope can act as a turning point after many years of neglect,” outgoing NPA chair Nick Kaye said.
“The latest announcement is a step forward after 11 years of funding squeezes” – “it is clear that the government has inherited an intolerable situation,” he added.
“We are glad that ministers have listened to patients and pharmacies,” he said.
Read more: NPA gives DH ‘time to digest’ results of 99% ‘Yes’ collective action ballot
Kaye added that the NPA wants to “work with them to deliver their ambition to create better outcomes for patients” and that “pharmacies are uniquely placed to achieve the government’s ambition of delivering care close to communities”.
And he said that the NPA is still “concerned” that “despite much-needed additional investment, pharmacies will face a substantial gap and some will still need to make tough decisions in the short term to keep their doors open”.
Read more: IN FULL: NPA sets out five contract demands - or collective action
The NPA “will be watching closely to see if the additional investment will have a stabilising effect on the pharmacy network”, he added.
“The last few months have shown that pharmacists – like GPs, hospital doctors and nurses – are a strong voice that must be heard,” he said.
“U-turn”?
It comes as the new funding deal prompted the NPA to pause its plans to recommend pharmacy collective action from April 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.
“I definitely wouldn’t be thinking about a U-turn,” he said at the time when pressed on plans for collective action.
Read more: Kinnock: Collective action is ‘premature, unnecessary and detrimental’
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”.
