Editor’s view: Chaos and hope

It hasn’t been a great start to the year, has it? Lloyds has announced it’s walking away from almost a fifth of its branches as it ends its relationship with Sainsbury’s, leaving up to 2,000 employees in limbo. On top of that, a recent RPS survey found that three-quarters of pharmacists have been so stressed they’ve thought about quitting, with the rest at high risk of burnout.

And as our lead story this month reveals, pharmacists throughout the UK are battling a shortages crisis that eclipses anything we’ve seen previously, with no thanks for their efforts, save excruciatingly high drugs bills. Can it really only be February?

But as I sit down to write my first leader column as P3pharmacy editor, I’d like to think it’s not all bad news. Our February issue gets into the nitty-gritty because we’re determined to shine a light on the impossible situation many of our readers face – but it also looks for the rays of hope and opportunity amid the chaos, because that’s our job too. 

First up, corporate sell-offs. The Lloyds announcement is certainly a worrying sign that businesses cannot cope under the existing five-year framework in England, but our interview with Christie & Co’s head of pharmacy suggests that for every multiple looking to sell there is a smaller operator eager to get stuck in and provide a tailored local service to patients. “We see a ready home for most of those units,” he tells us.

We also hear from Real World Analytics on the ways your pharmacy can prevent much-needed income from leaking out of the business. You may think it’s a tall order after already making countless cutbacks and efficiencies, but RWA’s recommendations are well worth engaging with. 

On the recruitment front, North East London LPC chief Shilpa Shah argues that pharmacists recruited to primary care roles via the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) should be encouraged to spend some of their NHS-funded hours in the community sector. The role of ARRS pharmacist “needs to be a true primary care role because that would really help the workforce,” she says.

Personally, I find her ideas more practical and forward-thinking than the oft-repeated demand from our representative bodies to halt primary care recruitment so that pharmacy’s workforce problem can be addressed. We sometimes hear that portfolio working is the future for the profession; Shilpa’s suggestion provides what looks like a clear path to that goal, even if the NHS doesn’t yet see it. 

In fact, this issue is packed with insight and analysis from a range of fresh voices and contributors who understand pharmacy’s woes but, crucially, are armed with innovative thinking on ways to tackle them. 

These are the stories we want to go on telling throughout what promises to be another challenging year. Whether you’re a pharmacist struggling with bills, workload, recruitment, you name it, or someone with ideas that could help lessen the load (you might be both), we want to hear from you. Please get in touch – my email address is arthur.walsh@1530.com