New report sets out opportunity to make community pharmacies cornerstone of neighbourhood health
The next decade offers an unprecedented opportunity to transform the community pharmacy sector into a cornerstone of the Government’s proposed Neighbourhood Health Service, says a report commissioned by Community Pharmacy England and published today.
The new report, ‘A Prescription for Success – the role of community pharmacy in delivering the 10 year plan for health‘, aligns the sector’s ambitions with those outlined in the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan, Fit for the Future. It also poses a series of crucial questions that must now be addressed to enable community pharmacy to realise its full potential.
Two years ago, Nuffield Trust and The King’s Fund set out a Vision for Community Pharmacy, describing a transformation of the community pharmacy sector, focusing on how pharmacies can help to address key policy goals around population health, prevention and the increasing demand in primary care. Today’s new report seeks to draw out the relationship between that vision and the broader ambitions set out in the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan.
The report describes how Community Pharmacy England and Local Pharmaceutical Committees (LPCs) will need to work with decision-makers at both a national and local level to address the challenges that the Government’s ambitions present. Doing so will help ensure that community pharmacies can then sit at the heart of neighbourhood health services, maximising their impact to deliver better value for commissioners and an improved experience for patients and the public.
A Prescription for Success calls on policymakers, commissioners, and system leaders to work with community pharmacy leaders to:
- Engage community pharmacy in service transformation;
- Invest in digital and physical infrastructure;
- Strengthen commissioning capacity;
- Integrate pharmacy workforce planning; and
- Reform the community pharmacy contract.
Read A Prescription for Success
The report, commissioned by Community Pharmacy England, has been developed by Helen Buckingham. Helen one of the co-authors of the original Vision for Community Pharmacy, and is also Chair of National Voices and has over 30 years of experience in the health and care system at both national and local policy level.
Janet Morrison, Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy England, said:
“This important review of the relationship between the Vision for Community Pharmacy and the 10-Year Health Plan sets out a clear pathway to ensure the pharmacies of tomorrow can become a cornerstone of neighbourhood health. It’s landing at a pivotal moment as policymakers are working out how best to implement the 10-Year Plan and Community Pharmacy England prepares to enter discussions on what comes next for the sector.
As everyone who works in and with us knows, community pharmacies are highly valuable and replied on by many millions of people, but there is still so much potential for them to do more. However, the sector is being held back by a number of barriers and obstacles which need to be overcome. This report identifies these challenges and then describes what needs to happen to help pharmacies thrive. It will help us to encourage policymakers to think more about how we can ensure that their ambitions for the pharmacies of tomorrow can become a reality.
Delivering elements of the 10-Year Health Plan and safeguarding pharmacy’s future will require action from local and national NHS commissioners, as well as Government, and from all in community pharmacy: all for the benefit of patients.”
Helen Buckingham, author of A Prescription for Success, said:
“Community pharmacies are a familiar presence on every high street, trusted by patients and increasingly recognised for the contribution they make to neighbourhood healthcare, which goes far beyond the dispensing of medicines. But there is work to be done at both national and local level to ensure that community pharmacy can fully realise its potential as a cornerstone of the neighbourhood health service. Without investment in both workforce and infrastructure, and a commitment on the part of community pharmacy to continue to transform, there is a real risk this opportunity will be missed.”
Next Steps
This new report builds on the valuable work of the Vision and will be particularly useful in helping initiate further policy discussions with national and local commissioners.
Engaging Government, the NHS and wider stakeholders on taking forward the 10-Year Plan’s ambitions, alongside this report’s discussion points, will form a key part of Community Pharmacy England’s influencing work in the coming months. Later today we will host a reception to launch A Prescription for Success – being attended by NHS policy leads, health charities, think tanks, pharmacy and wider primary care professionals, and patient representatives. This work will continue through regular and ongoing meetings with politicians and other key stakeholders.
We’ll be releasing more information and resources to help pharmacy owners and LPCs facilitate conversations with local stakeholders such as leaders of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) shortly.
