Community Pharmacy England has published a report about its engagements with various politicians and policy experts, in partnership with the think tank Re:State.
The bespoke event series hosted by Re:State and CPE across Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrat party conferences explored what it means to build a community-centric, future-fit NHS.
In all three events, senior speakers were joined in discussion with sector leaders.
Politicians and policy experts cited integration, localism and prevention as some of the core components required to build a future-fit NHS.
The discussions concluded that community pharmacy, in particular, is foundational to the Government’s ambition to deliver a community-centric, future-fit NHS.
At Labour Party Conference on October 1, care minister Stephen Kinnock was joined by Janet Morrison, chief executive of CPE; Sarah Woolnough, chief executive at The King’s Fund; and Rosie Beacon, Head of Health at Re:State, who chaired the discussion.
The event explored Labour’s plans for building a community-centric, future-fit NHS, and what is required to deliver the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan.
Janet told the minister and others that community pharmacy has much to offer to support a future-fit NHS, but she stressed that this can only happen if the current severe economic and funding challenges facing the sector can be resolved.
She highlighted recent Pressures data and accounts analysis, as well as painting a positive picture about what a fully resourced community pharmacy sector could offer patients and the NHS of the future.
This was supported by Sarah Woolnough, who stressed that community pharmacy needed to be at the heart of the emerging Neighbourhood Health Services.
The Minister said that governmental discussions about the funding ‘envelope’ for community pharmacy were ongoing.
However, he said that the 19 percent funding uplift delivered to community pharmacy this year is unlikely to be repeated, given ongoing budget constraints.
At a roundtable discussion at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester on October 8, Dr Luke Evans MP, shadow Parliamentary under secretary for health and social care, took part in the discussion.
Outside of the roundtable event, the CPE-Re:State team attended fringe events and met with other key stakeholders to make them understand the potential of the community pharmacy sector and the significant strain that it is still under.
A roundtable event on ‘The future of the NHS: strengthening care close to home’ was held during the Liberal Democrat Party Conference in September.
Helen Morgan MP, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Health and Social Care, chaired the roundtable of politicians and policy group representatives.
In the report, Janet Morrison said, “As the NHS starts work to implement the 10 Year Health Plan we wanted to bring politicians and policy experts together to discuss the way ahead and are grateful to Re:State for convening these events.
"Integration, local flexibility and the alignment of incentives are all important building blocks for the future so it was no surprise to see these issues featuring prominently in the discussions."
She said that while there was a shared ambition to improve healthcare for the benefit of patients, it was also acknowledged that there are some barriers.
"All primary care providers – including community pharmacies – are in need of critical financial and operational enablers to help them to deliver the 10 Year Health Plan’s ambitions.”
