Will the Keynes-Beveridge paradigm secure community pharmacy’s place in a mission-driven NHS? By Ade Williams

How does the community pharmacy sector navigate the scrutiny of Rachel Reeves, an economist by training and now Chancellor of the Exchequer? Amidst the country’s challenging economic backdrop, above-inflation wage recommendations and commitment to settle wage-related employment disputes, Reeves is sure to remind everyone there is no ‘magic money tree’.

It’s worth noting that Sir Keir Starmer’s new Labour administration has set its sights on a mission-driven government that will deliver national renewal. This approach, which raises national goals and focuses on ambitious, measurable, long-term objectives, aligns with the administration’s new priorities. The aim is to put the country back in the service of working people.

The election manifesto theme for Mission 5 is especially relevant to Community Pharmacy: “Build an NHS fit for the future – a service there when people need it, with fewer lives lost to the biggest killers, in a fairer Britain, where everyone lives well for longer.”

The party has made some bold commitments, like delivering 40,000 more NHS appointments and returning to the family doctor model, retaining/returning to the NHS as many doctors as possible and quelling further strike actions—mitigating productivity loss. Secretary of state Wes Streeting has already announced that the Department of Health and Social Care will prioritise and expand its focus to boost economic growth, commenting: “We are going to be a government that recognises… that as we get people not just back to health, but back to work, that is a big contribution to growth.”

Economic growth and the NHS? It may not be the tune we’re used to hearing these days, but in fact it is nothing new. The radical Beveridge Report of 1942, which helped birth the NHS, summarised the principles necessary to banish disease, poverty, and ‘want’ from Britain after the Second World War. Beveridge insisted that war provided an opportunity for national renewal and social progression through coherent government policy.

The Secretary of State and his colleagues have aligned their thinking with the 2022 BMA report Valuing Health: Why Prioritising Population Health is Essential to Prosperity, a project initiated by former BMA president (2021-22) Professor Neena Modi.

The report presents policy recommendations and action plans that state that good population health is essential for sustainable economic growth.

Its clarion call was that the Government urgently needed to rethink the relationship between health and the economy.

The assertion in the report that the population’s health is crucial to sustainable economic growth, rather than being dependent on a prosperous economy, chimes very well with Streeting’s much-quoted words at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change event: “NHS will become a powerhouse of economic growth”.

For community pharmacy, further comments of Streeting’s at that event offer helpful insight and scope for tailoring our approach and aligning with this new era.

“I want to end the begging bowl culture, where the Health Secretary only ever goes to the Treasury to ask for more money,” Streeting said. “I want to deliver the Treasury billions of pounds of economic growth.”

Ours has never been a begging bowl, but an offer to deliver NHS wellness and prevention at scale. Community pharmacy must now articulate how it will help reduce the 2.8 million people who are inactive due to long-term sickness.

Also, our crucial role in improving population health and boosting the labour market back to the pre-pandemic level is a move that will deliver significant economic growth.

I anticipate a surge in new and updated community pharmacy-focused economic reviews that underscore the value of a sustainable community pharmacy network, relying on the Keynes-Beveridge paradigm.

Keynesian economics certainly supports the case for investing in community pharmacy – an investment that, not least, we forget, is guaranteed to deliver financial returns well above the outlay.

With our innovative clinical outlook and quality-assured productivity outcomes, we can even help define what the NHS driving economic growth looks like. Vast, measurable, verifiable data, though, will be crucial.

We are certainly mission-ready, but sadly, very low on supplies. This is undoubtedly an adverse J M Keynes multiplier effect risk the country can ill afford.

Ade Williams owns community pharmacies in Bristol