New NPA chair Olivier Picard yesterday (May 1) told C+D that the membership body’s months-long collective action campaign is “not something that [he] would change”.
Last week, the pharmacy body announced that it would not recommend collective action to its members after all, saying that the new pharmacy contract represents “a clear step forward after a decade of cuts”.
Read more: Revealed: Majority disagree with NPA scrapping collective action
The decision came in spite of a unanimous vote from its members in favour of protest action in November and after the NPA claimed in January that it would “not hesitate” to recommend action if a funding deal did not meet “five key tests”.
But yesterday, Picard told C+D in an exclusive interview that the campaign “was the right thing to do”.
Read more: Collective action – has the NPA lost some respect?
“I think it sent the right message and the campaign has actually, for the network and the profession, probably [gone] above the expectation that we had at the start,” he said.
Picard added that Community Pharmacy England (CPE) chair Sue Killen “also acknowledged that as an organisation we really helped to shift the dial so that we could get the offer that we got”.
“I wouldn’t change a thing,” he stressed.
“The campaign is slowing down”
“We haven’t done a U-turn at all”, Picard said when asked about the NPA’s decision against recommending collective action.
“We are a campaigning organisation and when you campaign you have to shift your tactics,” he told C+D, adding that “now is not the time to take action”.
“To sustain a high-level campaign all the time is very difficult, Picard said.
Read more: BREAKING: NPA U-turns on pharmacy collective action
“I’m a genuine believer that the ministers are very keen to improve the services that we offer in community pharmacy” – “we’ve got to work with this government,” he added.
But Picard admitted that “it would take a long time [for the NPA] to be in the room with a minister [and] it would take very little for the minister to forget about us”.
“The minister for the department is unable to share anything with us until they’ve been told what they’re going to have to spend for the next three years,” he said.
Read more: Kinnock: No collective action ‘a victory for community pharmacies’
“They have committed to coming back to the table and talking to CPE sooner rather than later,” he added.
“I think the campaign is slowing down but advocating for members isn’t – making sure that every independent community pharmacy thrives for their patient, for their community and for their family,” he said.
The right call?
Earlier this week, C+D revealed that some 60% of readers do not think the NPA made the right decision in calling off plans for collective action.
Almost a fifth (19%) said they were not sure if the body made the right call, while just 21% of respondents agreed with the NPA’s decision.
Read more: Exclusive: NPA’s Nick Kaye - ‘We are suspending collective action and looking to the future’
Meanwhile, pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock last week said that the NPA’s decision not to recommend collective action is “a victory for community pharmacies”.
“I look forward to working closely with the NPA as we build a stronger community care system with pharmacy at its heart,” he added.
