Pharmacy sector bodies have reacted to Andy Burnham becoming prime minister and the appointment of Yvette Cooper as health secretary.
Burnham became prime minister on July 20, and Cooper was appointed health secretary the same day - replacing James Murray, who was appointed in May following Wes Streeting’s resignation.
Meanwhile, former pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock has taken over as Welsh secretary, and his replacement is yet to be announced.
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National Pharmacy Association (NPA) chief executive Henry Gregg said in a statement that community pharmacies are “perfect partners for the new prime minister’s instinct for place-based planning”.
He said Kinnock “worked hard with our sector to begin reversing a decade of funding cuts, but there is a long way still to go”.
“We now need to go further and faster to make community pharmacies a centrepiece of primary care reform,” he added.
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Gregg also said Burnham’s “pledge to reform business rates to provide greater support for high-street businesses is quite right”.
“Pharmacies are at the heart of every high street and should benefit from the business rate relief already given to other parts of the NHS, so that we can continue to provide vital healthcare in every neighbourhood.”
“Considerable pressure”
Independent Pharmacies Association chief executive Leyla Hannbeck said community pharmacy “has endured a prolonged period of political uncertainty” and “cannot afford any further delay in addressing the serious challenges facing the sector”.
“We look forward to working constructively with Yvette Cooper and her ministerial team to tackle the fundamental issues holding community pharmacy back, including ending the unacceptable situation where pharmacies are forced to dispense medicines at a loss,” she said.
Read more: NPA repeats call for pharmacy business rates exemption
Hannbeck also urged the government to “address the deep unfairness whereby GP surgeries and dental practices receive business rates reimbursement for NHS services, while community pharmacies do not”.
“I hope the new health secretary and, when appointed, the new pharmacy minister will realise they will only deliver the neighbourhood health service they want by recognising the vital role community pharmacies play as the front door to the NHS,” she added.
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And Community Pharmacy England chief executive Janet Morrison warned that “pharmacies remain under considerable pressure.”
“Maintaining momentum on reform and sector sustainability, as well as building on the investment and sector contributions to date, will be vital,” she added.
“We stand ready to work constructively with the new secretary of state and her team to help deliver the government’s health ambitions alongside the support, reform and investment that pharmacies desperately need.”
Letter to Burnham
The NPA also today published an open letter to the new PM, highlighting that the “existing and embedded community pharmacy network should be central to the government’s ambitions to move care out of hospitals and into communities”.
The letter pointed to the PM’s record in Greater Manchester, which it said showed “the value of bringing health services closer to the people and communities they serve”.
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“Community pharmacies are doing this every day [in] communities nationwide and are a highly cost-effective way to support your ambition to create prosperous and healthy local neighbourhoods,” it said.
The NPA stressed that “sustained financial pressures” mean “neighbourhoods are still losing their local pharmacy”, and urged the government “to consider further targeted support” for pharmacies.
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It comes after pharmacist and Labour MP for North Somerset Sadik Al-Hassan told C+D in June that it is “not the government’s job to make pharmacy owners happy”.
And it follows the NPA repeating its call for the government to deliver a business rate exemption for pharmacies earlier this month.
