Mike Smith puts the world to rights…

Is it just me, or is the run-up to a general election just about the only time that we hear the really big hitters in politics (and by that I mean those at the level of health secretary and above) publicly acknowledge the roles of healthcare professionals other than GPs?

With only a few more months of electioneering to go, I am sure we can all look forward to many more warm words about the role community pharmacists can play. Perhaps, between now and 7 May, we should all start keeping count of how many times we hear the phrases ‘bigger role to play’ or ‘swing the pendulum of care away from hospital towards the community’ or ‘vital role in preventative care’ before the votes are cast and the pre-election pledges appear to immediately disappear into the ether.

At the Royal Pharmaceutical Society conference in September, pharmacy minister Earl Howe told pharmacists of the NHS’s desire to ‘maximise the value we get from every pound that we spend on NHS medicines’. He told the conference: ‘We very much consider the £12 billion investment we make in NHS medicines every year as essential in helping the NHS to deliver affordable healthcare. All the same, we can't overlook the money and I need not remind you that we are still in challenging times. The financial outlay is increasing every year and NHS funds are not limitless.’

If anyone was in any doubt about what he meant, they only had to wait until the end of that same month to see the pharmacy contract settlement for England, for 2014/15. With its steely gaze fixed on stripping money out of dispensing and putting some (but far from all) back into service development, it is clear that the government’s intention to invest in medicines has a very specific direction in mind.

At one fell swoop, it seems that the good news of the positive New Medicines Service evaluation – the ultimate proof that pharmacy can deliver meaningful outcomes in medicines optimisation – has become a stick with which to beat the profession of pharmacy, and the pharmacists that power it.

Pharmacists are already reporting high levels of workplace stress and financial pressures to the Pharmacist Support help organisation. I am sure that the high number of calls to the support service relating to ‘employment issues’ are also connected to this. When pharmacists can only see a future ahead of them of doing ‘the same for less money’ or ‘more work for the same’, it is hardly surprising that calls to the charity are up more than 40 per cent compared to two years ago.

With all these very real pressures on pharmacy at the moment, it would be easy to miss the draft Pharmaceutical Needs Assessments (PNAs), now being published for consultation by England’s health and wellbeing boards ahead of an April 2015 deadline. But, if there is one thing you read over the next few months (or make sure you ask your LPC to read on your behalf), it’s your local draft PNA. This document holds the key to your future over the three years to 2018 – and with a bit of ‘out of the box’ thinking, it might just be enough to help you find a way forward for your business in these pressured and challenging times.

PNAs contain a wealth of local information – the gaps in service provision already known to the health and wellbeing board – as well as those likely to occur as a result of changing population demographics and customer needs and wants. These all have the power to make or break a business, so please make sure you get to grips with these sooner rather and later, and get all the information you need.

Mike Smith is chairman of Alliance Healthcare, mike.h.smith@alliance-healthcare.co.uk