By P3pharmacy editor Arthur Walsh

Does Wes Streeting know Labour won the election? It’s three months in and there are big decisions to be made, but from some of his speechifying you’d think he was still in opposition mode. Much of the discourse is around how the Conservatives wrecked the NHS rather than what he will do to fix it. 

I know, I know – it’s just politics. We never heard the end of the ‘no money’ memo that Labour’s Liam Byrne left to his Tory successor in the Treasury in 2010. It was only a joke according to Byrne, but it played right into the hands of the Conservatives as they set about making savage cuts to public services. Streeting is probably hoping his message will lodge itself in the public consciousness in the same way, but to my ears it is already a little tired.

He struck the same note in late October as he urged the public to share their own ideas for saving the NHS, describing the health service as “broken” but “not beaten”. NHS England’s Amanda Pritchard spoke of crumbling buildings, steam age technology and the collective effort that is needed to sort the mess out. 

They were launching Change NHS, a new website where members of the public can go until the end of this year to offer their thoughts on what Labour’s 10 Year Health Plan should look like. From the wise and wonderful to the weird and wacky, the site is already attracting a huge number of responses. 

A lot of the less constructive messages have been taken down, like the individual who asked why pharmacists were all millionaires because apparently a member of the profession “paid £1.8 million for my mother’s house then spent at least another £300k completely wrecking it”. The state of the health service is a highly personal affair indeed for some of us. 

Some of the ideas may warrant more considered debate. Like whether it should be easier for patients to book an appointment with the pharmacy directly via the NHS app, or whether the whole model of pharmacies sourcing medicines needs to be overhauled.

My own wish for a revitalised NHS? Well, it would be a nice starting point if executives understood the impact on the ground of the decisions they take. In our November issue we hear from pharmacists who are trying to drive home the message that branded generics are strangling businesses and offer only illusory savings to ICB drug budgets.

And in light of a recent coroner’s report on a tragic case involving the death of an elderly woman who mistakenly used medicines from her husband’s dosette box, it might be worth listening to the pharmacists who say the debate around the safety and usefulness of MDS trays needs to be settled once and for all. 

Who knows what will come of this exercise, but it’s certainly worth sharing your thoughts. And as ever I am keen to hear from readers who are trying something different in their own pharmacies, so please get in touch with me at arthur.walsh@1530.com.