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Criticism may be easy but reaching out and building strategic relationships will bear more fruit, writes Malcolm Harrison

For too long contractual frameworks and funding within the NHS have, whether intentionally or inadvertently, pitted community pharmacy against other parts of primary care. 

When you feel like you’re feeding on the scraps of others, disharmony is almost unavoidable.

But criticism is easy. Providing viable solutions is difficult. And providing solutions might just mean reaching outside of the established community pharmacy circle of influence.

The power of the collective

The government has set out three strategic shifts for the NHS – moving care from hospitals to communities, making better use of technology, and focusing on preventing sickness rather than treating it. 

Change will, of course, require significant funding and goodwill if these shifts are to be truly realised. However, when the government is at pains to reiterate the lack of funding available, collaboration could be key. 

True change lies in the ability to build powerful coalitions and winning hearts and minds to deliver solutions. The Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) has sought to abide by this mantra for many years now. 

Patient safety

Many readers will be aware of the CCA’s involvement in supporting the Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group (PSG). 

The group is focused on sharing and learning from actual incidents and near misses, to embed a culture of preventative action and continual improvement across the entire sector.

It meets monthly, attracting a range of guest speakers on topics that have ranged from Pharmacy First, sodium valproate supply, fentanyl safety, ‘look-alike, sound-alike’ and the Primary Care Patient Safety Strategy.

It also provides expert input into work undertaken by the likes of the Department and the MHRA.

With our support, the PSG increasingly works with colleagues across the patient safety space – from secondary care to academics and commissioners.

It is quickly becoming a critical part of the collective effort of all healthcare professionals to champion patient safety. 

Through the group, not only is community pharmacy learning from other experts, but we’re able to share our knowledge outside the sector. A virtuous circle where the ultimate beneficiary is the patient.

It’s the PSG’s 10th year anniversary this year and I know it is continuing to develop its plans for delivering into the future. 

More NHS vaccines

We launched the Pharmacy Vaccinations Development Group (PVDG), bringing together commissioners with representatives across the entire medicines supply chain.

The group is working to build the case for pharmacies to administer more NHS vaccines. 

Why? Well, because we think it’s a no-brainer. The CCA was part of a group that made a robust case for pharmacies to play a role in the NHS’ national covid vaccination programme.

Pharmacies have been administering the flu vaccine for over a decade and an estimated 80 per cent have a private vaccination service. 

When the NHS was focused on hospital and mass vaccination centres in late 2020, we were working to develop a smaller scale, community-based model for the NHS to adopt. In early 2021, the first pharmacies started administering the Covid-19 vaccine, and now pharmacies have delivered over a quarter of all covid vaccines in England.

Of course, a no-brainer to us isn’t always perceived as such elsewhere. It is only by reaching outside of our sector and building new relationships that we can understand the priorities of others.

But successful collaboration often rewards us with a multiplication of our efforts in return. We need allies across health and social care, in government departments and across our elected representatives. 

In February this year, the PVDG launched its first report in Parliament, setting out key enablers to harnessing pharmacy and its recommendations for next steps.

With 100 attendees on the day, the event brought together individuals from within and, crucially, outside of community pharmacy. 

Partnering with others

The past 18-months at the CCA has seen a renewed focus on partnering with leading organisations to drive change. 

Just a few weeks ago, I was delighted to participate in the NHS Confederation’s webinar on Pharmacy First to showcase the merits of that important service, as the CCA has done from the outset.  

This was preceded by our report on Pharmacy First, sponsored by Pfizer, to mark the service’s first anniversary, demonstrating the benefits pharmacies are providing to patients and the NHS. 

And before that, we partnered with BHR BioSynex to model the benefits of a community pharmacy diabetes screening service. 

Winning friends

We believe that this kind of partnership approach is critical to driving change. 

Too often community pharmacy has spent time focused on itself. Too often we have forgotten to look past our immediate horizons. It’s time we as a sector focused on understanding the wider challenges the NHS faces through true partnership and collaboration.

To that end, it’s imperative that future contractual frameworks and funding create the impetus for collaboration between providers over competition. 

Community pharmacy can choose to try and go it alone, or we can do it together with new friends and partners. 

Malcolm Harrison is chief executive of the Company Chemists’ Association