The government’s 10-year health plan for England is “not really a plan”, pharmacy sector leaders have said.
Speaking on a panel at the Pharmacy Show yesterday, National Pharmacy Association (NPA) chief executive Henry Gregg said that while the plan announced last July has “shown a lot of ambition”, it is “not really a plan because there isn’t a financial plan that sits underneath it.”
“I think the direction of travel is great, but I don’t think there was ever [an] operational framework to sit underneath it, to say when everything is going to happen and how it is going to be funded,” he told delegates.
“No roadmap”
Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) chief executive Malcolm Harrison was also critical of the plan, saying that while it has “set out a vision and direction” it has provided “no roadmap for getting there”.
“I don’t think as a sector we’ve ever lacked ambition,” he added. “What we haven’t got, though, is the plan for delivery and that’s something that needs to be developed.”
Harrison also acknowledged the 13.9% increase in funding under the community pharmacy settlement for 2025/26, but said that money was needed “just to stabilise the existing network”.
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“That money isn’t available to invest in the future,” he said.
Also speaking on the panel was Independent Pharmacies Association board member Ian Strachan, who said the government had “underestimated the complexity of [the] reforms” introduced under the plan and agreed that there was “no roadmap” in place.
“The scale and scope of the change they’re proposing is so far-reaching for the NHS and there was never any external validation of this, there isn’t the money there,” he added.
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And while Gregg said he was “optimistic” about the future of community pharmacy, he warned that realisation of the 10-year health plan depends on funding, tech and GPs being “willing” to give prescribing work to pharmacies.
It comes after sector figures expressed concerns about the introduction of independent prescribing and the expansion of pharmacists’ responsibilities without adequate support at this year’s Pharmacy Show.
And it follows Community Pharmacy England research and insights director James Davies announcing to Pharmacy Show delegates that the contract reforms agreed in the 2026/27 community pharmacy deal could take “three or four years”.
