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These are challenging times

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These are challenging times

Mike Smith puts the world to rights...

These are challenging times, but there may be help out there. I could have used this headline in many of the articles I have written over recent years, but this time it seems particularly relevant.

These are really challenging times for community pharmacy and it is now clear that we have to change our approach to funding.

I have practised in community pharmacy for almost 50 years and have seen crises come and go. However, this crisis is clearly more significant than many I have seen before, but the fact remains that we do have to work with the DH to achieve these savings.

It is really encouraging that we now have one million signatures on the National Pharmacy Association petition, which Alliance Healthcare was pleased to help to distribute. The petition clearly demonstrates how important community pharmacies are to the patients and customers they serve. This is not just about the supply of medicines, prescription and OTC, and the provision of healthcare advice. Community pharmacy also provides a most important social function, as well as a plethora of services for which we are not paid. We need to raise awareness of these activities, which the DH appears to choose to ignore.

The DH needs to understand what we do and what our communities stand to lose if we see significant numbers of pharmacy closures, but by then it may be too late! Community pharmacy is a huge asset to our communities.

It’s clear from recent PSNC statements that the negotiations continue to be difficult: in the words of Peter Cattee, chair of funding and contract subcommittees at PSNC: “In our meetings with the Department of Health and NHSE, it has become clear that they have little interest in commissioning additional national community pharmacy services or in our (PSNC) constructive proposals to make better use of community pharmacy to help the NHS make savings.”

I have known Peter for many years and I have great respect for his words. It is evident therefore that the writing is on the wall – we have to manage our way through the cuts. The tactic, then, has to be to really demonstrate the value of community pharmacy to ensure that further cuts
do not follow. This is where the petition will be helpful – public opinion is clearly on our side and we have to use this to the full. We also have to demonstrate just how good we are. We really
do need to raise our profile, and again I ask the question: where is our PR?
We have to realise that we must change our thinking on funding. I have been urging change for many years, but now we have no choice.

OPEN – Our Pharmacies Embracing the New – was the theme of the excellent Alphega Pharmacy UK conference that I recently attended, and this is exactly what we have to do. The conference was attended by 446 pharmacists and included an awards ceremony that recognised excellence in community pharmacy – examples that we must now publicise.

New services announced included Growing Healthy, which aims to assist families with children aged four to 12 in adopting healthy behaviours: an addition to the extensive portfolio offered by Alphega Pharmacy UK. It is clear to me that child obesity is a priority for NHS England and as such there may be public health funding available. The increase in the incidence of type 2 diabetes means that this generation may have lower life expectancy for the first time in many years.

I do suggest that Alphega Pharmacy membership may be a way to develop your pharmacy – it clearly works with 1,000 enthusiastic members in the UK and more than 6,000 across mainland Europe.

The time has come for us to be more open – open to sharing ideas, open to change and open to a new future for pharmacists.

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

The writing is on the wall – we have to manage our way through the cuts

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