Hit it, Frank

By Rob Darracott

This is my last editorial. Yes, after four and a bit years, I am handing over as editor of P3pharmacy to someone much younger and smarter to curate for you, dear readers, the stuff you need to survive and thrive. I cannot, however, pass up one final opportunity to proffer some Front Desk advice to those responsible for steering the ship of pharmacy between the Scylla of the NHS and the Charybdis of the wider financial economy. 

First. Community pharmacy does not exist in a bubble of its own choosing. Post-pandemic, politicians, officials and NHS senior management have never had a better appreciation of the work of the sector. They might not appreciate it enough to invest in it – yet – but it’s your job to offer pharmacy solutions to the things that worry them. To do that properly, you need a forensic understanding of integrated care, population health management, personalised medicine, NHS financing, commissioning, strategic needs assessment… 

Second, there’s nothing wrong with being constructive when you can. The NPA’s engagement in the Fuller Stocktake last year was a perfect example of how to build credibility by demonstrating expertise, telling stories, and developing relationships with people outside the sector who might not know how or why they might need you. You need to have a clear picture of any red lines before you start, and you might not know at the time where helpful will get you, but I’ve bored enough people over the years with how and why the national flu vaccination service in pharmacy came about when it did.

Thirdly, and this underpins the other two, healthcare is a people business. One in which professionals have knowledge to share and deploy in the public (patient) interest. They might get paid for a specific input, they might not. Either way, it’s the human interaction that’s the valuable bit. Whether it’s the pandemic, the workforce crisis, the contract shift from supply to services, it’s the direct interaction with patients that is crucial. So, excluding the people who do the job from decisions about what the job is or how it’s done makes no sense (a truism P3pharmacy’s business development modules cover regularly). If the exodus into primary care tells us anything, it’s that pharmacists and pharmacy technicians want to spend more time in the people business, being clinicians. It’s their future too, so ask them. 

I’d like to thank the colleagues, the writers and the contributors, particularly Lesley and David, who deserved a less chaotic editor, who have helped P3pharmacy deliver a different take on community pharmacy for the last four years. The long form interviews with people whose vital perspectives are worthy of an audience. Intelligence that contextualises health and care. Analysis of the business metrics and drivers that make community pharmacy what it is. Insight into ‘why’? Pithy, on point, commentary from Outsider and our columnists. 

Thank you, too, to Communications International Group for allowing me to be free to be myself again. And thank you, our readers, for the emails, especially those pointing me in the direction of an unsung hero or heroine who might just have a great story to tell. Because they usually do. 

Arthur, the chair is yours.