PM Keir Starmer last week (May 10) revealed that pharmacies will play a “key role” in the hotly anticipated 10-year health plan.
In a letter to delegates, Starmer said that he was “delighted to send a message of support for the 15th Sigma retail pharmacy conference 2025”.
“Community pharmacies have a vital role to play in rebuilding our NHS and so we are expanding their role by accelerating the rollout of independent prescribers,” he added.
Read more: Pharmacists urged to ‘submit ideas’ for 10-year plan to ‘fix NHS’
“This government is developing a 10-year health plan to reform the NHS and make it fit for the future,” Starmer said.
“Pharmacies play a key role in enabling the ‘shifts’ from hospital to community, and from treatment to prevention,” he added.
The PM added that the recently announced 2025/26 funding deal “reflects the importance of the role pharmacists and their teams play within the NHS”.
“Big” shifts?
In October, the government launched a months-long consultation asking the “entire nation” to help shape its 10-year plan to “overhaul” the NHS, which is due to be published imminently.
The announcement laid out “three big shifts in healthcare: hospital to community, analogue to digital [and] sickness to prevention”.
Read more: NHS 10-year plan: Government ‘lazy and limited’ on prevention
But last month, former chair and president of the National Association of Primary Care (NAPC) Professor James Kingsland said that “there’s some lazy and limited thinking around prevention” within government.
And chair of the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) Dr Jonathan Pearson-Stuttard said that he is “fearful we won’t be overwhelmed” by the plan, adding that “the expectations of the 10-year plan may disappoint with regards to prevention”.
