Pharmacists must stop moaning at commissioners and ask what they can do to improve health in their areas, Health Foundation director of research and evaluation Professor Nick Barber told the C+D Summit yesterday (April 11).

Professor Barber advised pharmacists to take clinical commissioning group (CCG) leads out to dinner and offer them health solutions to get ahead under the new NHS.

"How many people do you know who criticise you all the time and how do you feel about them?" Nick Barber The Health Foundation	More from the C+D Summit HLPs are a 'waste of time', C+D Summit told GPs and pharmacists have 'lost their way' on local       engagement Build partnerships to get commissions, Summit told
	GPs would hold the power in the new environment and pharmacists must be seen to help them, rather than simply delivering bad news, Professor Barber said. He argued that pharmacists and GPs only tended to contact each other when there was a problem.

"How many people do you know who criticise you all the time and how do you feel about them?" Professor Barber asked.

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Professor Barber urged delegates to think of a way to engage their local CCG and act upon it in the next week.

Pharmacists who didn't adapt to the new commissioning environment soon would face difficulties, he stressed. "It's evolve or die," Professor Barber warned.