Appearing on Prevention is the new cure, a podcast series hosted by former pharmacy minister Steve Brine and former health minister Lord Bethell, the NHSE CEO was asked about the critical state of pharmacy funding as part of a wide ranging discussion on the NHS.
Community pharmacies are being “hit by the rising cost of being private businesses – utilities, wages, business rates,” he was asked. “Do you think you can achieve the step change you want, in the hospital to community shift especially, without a step change in funding for community pharmacy?”
“I think this is really a casualty of the pressure on the money overall, and at the minute there isn’t an easy way of putting money into something without taking it from somewhere else,” said Mackey. “That’s very important.”
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“We will have to find a way of resolving the matter, and I do believe strongly that we need a vibrant community pharmacy system to support all the things we’ve just talked about.
“But we haven’t yet got a solution. It is being actively discussed, and we will have to find a way through. We have to find a plan. We haven’t got a clear path to resolve the matter yet, but that’s largely financial.”
