Pharmacy bodies launch manifesto ahead of next General Election

Community Pharmacy England, the Company Chemists’ Association, the National Pharmacy Association and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society have today (5th March) published a joint Manifesto for community pharmacy, ahead of the General Election expected this year.

The manifesto can be used by anyone in the community pharmacy sector, including LPCs and all pharmacy owners, to engage with political parties and candidates in the run-up to the election.

The #VotePharmacy Manifesto and other resources that promote pharmacy to parliamentary candidates can be accessed from an online general election hub, votepharmacy.org. The hub includes practical advice to pharmacy teams about engaging with candidates.

Election candidates will be asked to show their support and back a six point plan to unleash the potential of community pharmacy:

1. Fill the funding gap, and commit to long-term sustainable funding, so pharmacies can deliver more of the NHS care patients need.
2. Support and enhance the community pharmacy workforce to ensure that pharmacists and their teams can continue to meet the needs of patients now and in the future.
3. Ensure that patients can access the medicines they need, including an end-to-end review of the medicines supply chain.
4. Rollout an enhanced Pharmacy First service for England, mirroring the highly successful approaches taken in Scotland and Wales.
5. Empower community pharmacists to do more, with an ambitious roadmap for independent prescribing.
6. Make pharmacies centres for public health, prevention and reducing health inequalities.

Janet Morrison, Community Pharmacy England Chief Executive, said:

“The General Election campaigning period is always an important moment to highlight community pharmacies – both their value and the critical situation they now find themselves in – and to start to build Parliamentary supporters for the future. This Manifesto is very much in line with the investment and support that Community Pharmacy England continues to press for and will further help us to do that. We hope that all pharmacy owners, as well as LPCs and other pharmacy owner representatives, will be able to support it and to help us to make community pharmacy’s voice heard ahead of the election.”

The hashtag #VotePharmacy will be used to share updates throughout the election campaign.

Further information and guidance will be available to all pharmacy owners and LPCs on the campaign website in due course.

Additional influencing and campaigning work

Community Pharmacy England is continuing to warn Government and the NHS about the ongoing impact of the extreme financial pressures that community pharmacies, who have been subjected to a 30% funding cut since 2015, are grappling with.

We are calling for:

1. A sustainable funding model for community pharmacies.
2. A full review of the medicines supply market, and short-term relief measures.
3. Investment in community pharmacy’s clinical future.
4. A plan to safeguard the pharmacy workforce.

Our upcoming drop-in Parliamentary event on March 12th will give MPs a chance to hear more about Pharmacy First, while also allowing us – alongside AIM, CCA, NPA and RPS – to brief them on the critical pressures facing the sector. If you would like to invite your MP to attend this event, please email comms.team@cpe.org.uk

To support all of this ongoing work, we have recently updated our guidance for engaging with MPs and added a number of MP briefings to our Information for Politicians webpage. These include information about Pharmacy First as well as our latest position on topical issues.