Community Pharmacy England presents strategy to improve outlook for pharmacy
A recorded presentation on what lies ahead for community pharmacy – including Community Pharmacy England’s strategy to improve the outlook for pharmacy owners and their teams – is now available to watch on-demand.
Spring 2024 saw two key moments for community pharmacy: the end of the five-year CPCF and a General Election campaign. As critical junctures for the future of the sector, Community Pharmacy England had been preparing for both for some time and we wanted to discuss this work directly with pharmacy owners.
Chief Executive Janet Morrison and her team, as well as Committee Members, ran a series of in-person roadshow events in every region outside of London during July, to tell pharmacy owners and their representatives more about our work to tackle key issues and our plans for the future. The new recording is a livestreamed presentation from one of these regional meetings.
The presentation at these events covered the significant pressures for community pharmacies, CPCF negotiations, Pharmacy First, and Community Pharmacy England’s strategy to improve the outlook. This programme of work to influence and engage with the new Government includes:
- Working with PA Consulting, an independent consultancy with extensive experience working across Government, to review and support our negotiating approach, assess NHS policy priorities and service opportunities, and deliver training to the Committee.
- Undertaking an economic project to look at base case funding, cost benefit analysis of the value delivered, and the business case for future investment in the community pharmacy sector.
- Making contact with the vast majority of MPs and planning our first Parliamentary event for the autumn.
- Preparing a submission to Lord Darzi’s review of the state of the NHS (as commissioned by the Health Secretary).
- Planning for national media coverage of the sector’s plight and how this is impacting on patients.
- Continuing dialogue with think tanks, patient groups and wider stakeholders to build wider support for community pharmacy.
Further details of our strategy and workplan for the current year have been shared in Briefing 016/24: Community Pharmacy England Strategy published last week.
The Community Pharmacy England team talked to hundreds of pharmacy owners in-person and via livestream, and feedback has been largely positive. Many attendees said they were appreciative that we took the time to come and brief them and answer their questions on our strategy, as well as staying behind to discuss further issues one-on-one. The questions and comments raised at these events will be collated and fed back to the Committee, and we will continue to seek wider sector views via regular polling, events and other engagement work.
The team also met with the region’s LPC Chairs and Chief Officers ahead of each event to hear about any local context to national issues and learn from some of the initiatives that LPCs are working on behalf of pharmacy owners at a local level.
There is one remaining event in the roadshow series scheduled for 26th September in London: learn more and book now. We will also be continuing to engage with pharmacy owners throughout the year via regular polling and attendance at numerous sector conferences, including the Pharmacy Show. Pharmacy owners can also continue to reach us by emailing our teams directly or by raising issues through their Regional Representatives and LPCs.
Watch the recorded presentation
Anyone who was unable to attend the in-person or livestreamed events, the recorded presentation is now available to watch via the link below:
Watch a recording of our Pharmacy Owner Event
A copy of the slide deck is also available to view here
Provide feedback about the events or the recorded presentation
