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By P3pharmacy editor Arthur Walsh

We were due an NHS workforce plan sometime in the summer, but will now have to wait until at least November – perhaps the new year? 

The Department of Health and Social Care only issued a call for evidence at the end of September and will presumably need some time to sift through the responses it gets by its 7 November deadline (which itself coincides with the point when winter pressures really ramp up). 

As the health service teems with crises old and new – that all cry out for attention – the delay in publishing this one report is unsurprising. But it’s also unfortunate, as it means health workers are left in the dark as to how exactly the government sees its lofty reform ambitions being carried out in practice.

So far, it has said that by the end of a planned 10-year reform period (assuming Labour gets in again) there will be fewer NHS staff than the Conservatives promised in 2023 but has claimed they will be “more motivated”. 

We have an inkling of how Wes Streeting sees the pharmacy workforce reshaping in the coming years, partly because it doesn’t seem that different from what we’ve heard for a few years.

Namely, that relaxing regulations will free up pharmacists’ time for new services while pharmacy technicians and support staff handle dispensary duties.

Whenever the plan does arrive, you can safely bet that not everyone will be happy with it. What people most want to see is hard numbers and funding commitments, an ask Labour is probably not in any position to meet. 

A major problem with trying to craft forward-looking plans around people’s jobs is that there are so many unpredictable variables. 

Locum pharmacists know that better than anyone, as after a few years of higher-than-normal hourly rates, shifting market trends mean that many say they are being offered the same rates that were available 20 years ago. The last year has seen a 12 per cent drop in average rates in England according to property broker Christie & Co’s annual sector report. 

Unintended consequences are another factor. NHS England presumably didn’t realise that the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme would create such a recruitment headache for pharmacy owners. Will the forthcoming workforce plan create similar knotty problems?

It’s not just pharmacies who are struggling with workforce issues. Labour is pumping investment into training more GPs, and the total workforce is indeed lower than it was a decade ago. 

But many qualified doctors report that they are struggling to find suitable work – with the more cynical among them claiming there is an agenda to replace them with more junior workers such as physician associates (or whatever they’re called now). 

It will be a long wait to see whether Labour’s workforce plan stops problems like these from arising.