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Pharmacy has a voice - but is it heard?

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Pharmacy has a voice - but is it heard?

Mike Smith puts the world to rights…

There has been much in the press and on TV in recent weeks about the enormous financial pressures on the NHS. I suspect that more things can now be said that would have been damaging in the run-up to the election. I recently watched a Panorama programme – ‘NHS: the Perfect Storm’ – about the NHS in Liverpool.

It was a really well-produced and thought-provoking piece of television. The theme was based around care in the community and those featured included hospital consultants, GPs and social service providers. It was encouraging to see that it’s now appreciated that healthcare is not just about medical, but also social care.

It was also abundantly clear throughout the programme that patients and the associated funding need to be moved from secondary to primary care. The alternative is that the NHS cannot continue without significantly increased funding from the taxpayer (or co-payment?). Figures quoted the cost of a hospital bed at £500 per night, compared with £700 per week at home.

This is an absolute no brainer – the most important person in all of this, the patient, is much better off at home. At the same time, much needed beds are freed for acute admissions and, of course, the NHS makes significant savings. The commissioning group in Liverpool wrestled with the budget – but there is a determination to move in the right direction, and I applaud this.

However, there was something missing in the programme that really disturbed me. Not one mention of community pharmacy in the hour. The only reference to prescriptions was that ‘2.5 million’ are written every day.

You will now appreciate the reason for the title of this article. We have a plethora of representative bodies and they have dedicated staff, chief executives and board members – but are there too many? I remember many years ago in my time as a National Pharmacy Association board member and Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee member that there was talk of a merger.

I also chaired the PSNC constitution working party which recommended that the (then) size of the committee be reduced from 25 to 15. Twelve months’ work was rejected outright at the Local Pharmacies Committees (LPC) conference, and ironically the committee now has 32 members. Then we have the NPA with 18 board members, Pharmacy Voice with 12 board members and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society with an assembly of 11, as well as the three regional boards of between eight and 10.

All of these organisations also have full-time staff and chief executives. These are all dedicated, hard-working people, but we also have LPCs, local professional networks (LPNs) and goodness knows what else as well. I do not intend to criticise, but my philosophy is simple: an organisation is as good as its results. Despite all of these bodies and well-meaning individuals, is our message getting to the right people.

Is our PR good enough or is it just ineffectual? On another note, I am very proud of our local Exmouth Lewis Pharmacy. Alphega pharmacist Dr Jackie Lewis has developed an excellent and well-used oncology support programme for her patients and this is yet another splendid example of what our profession has to offer.

Unfortunately, last week, they suffered a demand for drugs from an individual armed with a gun – a timely reminder that we must always be on our guard for such events. Thankfully, nobody was hurt and an arrest has been made. So, stay safe and enjoy the summer.

Mike Smith is chairman of Alliance Healthcare, mike.h.smith@alliance-healthcare.co.uk

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