Pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock yesterday (June 23) told MPs that the state of community pharmacy was a “car crash” when he joined the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) last year.
“When I look across my portfolio, whether it is GPs, mental health, dentistry or pharmacy — you name it — it is a car crash right across the piece,” he said.
“I was frankly shocked by what I saw when I first went into the DH back in July,” he added, arguing that he hopes the government is “beginning to get things back on an even keel”.
Read more: Health minister Stephen Kinnock on the 2025 funding deal: ‘I know it’s not perfect, but...’
Speaking in a House of Commons debate on access to GPs, Kinnock claimed that “everything” the government has done since the election “has been geared towards saving the NHS, giving it back to the people and getting it back on its feet”.
“Ensuring that every patient has access to the care that they need is not just a priority, but a promise,” he added.
“A lot still to do”
Also speaking in the debate, Independent MP for North Down Alex Easton stressed that the Pharmacy First service “[deserves] detailed consideration” for its ability to take some pressure off GPs.
“[It] has been shown to effectively serve deprived communities and has real potential to alleviate the workload on our GPs,” he said.
It comes after Kinnock acknowledged in March that the long-awaited pharmacy funding deal was “not perfect by any means”.
Read more: Pharmacy First under ‘evaluation’ as DH expects to ‘fully utilise’ funds
“There’s a lot done, but a lot still to do,” he said at the time, adding that “the sector is under tremendous financial pressure but these measures we’re announcing today will go a long way to mitigating those pressures”.
Just days earlier, the community pharmacy economic review revealed that around half of pharmacies “were not profitable in their last accounting year”, concluding that that 99% of pharmacies in England are “not sustainable in the long-run”.
Kinnock also last week confirmed there will be a three-year evaluation of Pharmacy First after setting out that he expects to “fully” utilise the £215 million in funding allocated to the service for 2025/26.
