By Harry McQuillan
Contract negotiations for community pharmacy in England are now underway, and with that comes a genuine opportunity to reset the relationship between community pharmacy and the NHS.
This Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) negotiation must be about our clinical ambition, built upon a sustainable, stable and predictable funding package.
Community pharmacy is one of, if not the most accessible parts of our health care system, delivering clinical advice, urgent care, and long-term condition support at the heart of our neighbourhoods. When properly funded and empowered, it has huge potential to revolutionise patient care. When underfunded, the whole system feels the consequences. That is when pressure on GP practices, urgent care, and hospitals mount as patients seek alternative, less appropriate treatment options.
My hope is that these negotiations recognise that investment in community pharmacy is one of the smartest and safest investments the NHS can make. My experience in my previous role tells me this is true.
When pharmacies are engaged in service delivery, supported by a funding model that assures income at an appropriate level, patients are treated earlier, closer to home and without adding pressure to other parts of the system. Every consultation handled in a community pharmacy places us at the heart of care delivery and is a capacity released elsewhere. Every urgent supply resolved on the high street is one less avoidable contact with the out of hours service or attendance at A&E.
This is another reason why I believe the community pharmacy network should truly manage repeat prescribing and supply. In addition, every prevention intervention reduces the long-term cost to the NHS.
Community pharmacy does not drive demand; it absorbs it. And when it is supported to operate at full potential, the entire health system benefits.
With increased and properly structured funding, community pharmacies could confidently expand their clinical offer. Services such as hypertension case-finding, contraception provision and Pharmacy First have already demonstrated what is possible when policy intent is matched with operational delivery. Expand that to an NHS prescribing service such as Scotland’s Pharmacy First Plus, gives further scope for expansion and pharmacist retention.
These are not theoretical opportunities; they are proven models. With stability and fair remuneration, they could be embedded consistently, while enabling further progress in prevention, early intervention, and long-term condition management.
Sustainable funding would also allow contractors to invest properly in their workforce and premises. Our teams are highly skilled and at times, stretched. Greater certainty would create space for protected learning time, advanced clinical development, and clearer career pathways, strengthening recruitment and retention and ensuring community pharmacy delivers on being the most attractive and rewarding sector of our profession.
Infrastructure must form part of the conversation. Integrated IT systems, interoperable access to patient records and consultation-ready clinical environments are no longer aspirational, they are essential for safe, modern care. Investment here would unlock productivity, enhance patient safety, and ensure pharmacy is fully integrated within neighbourhood health models rather than operating at their margins.
Above all, fair funding would stabilise the existing network. Every pharmacy closure diminishes access and increases pressure elsewhere in the system. A resilient, geographically spread network is one of the NHS’s greatest assets.
We have seen in Scotland and Wales that longer-term, strategic approaches to community pharmacy create the conditions for service evolution. Northern Ireland too recognises the essential role its pharmacy network plays within primary care. England now has the opportunity to take a similarly long-term view.
Community pharmacy consistently delivers more than it is commissioned to do, absorbing demand, supporting vulnerable patients, and maintaining access in communities where other services have retreated. This was evident in all four UK countries during the Covid-19 pandemic, where every team went above and beyond what was expected and then some. Imagine what could be achieved if the contractual framework truly matched the sector’s potential.
My hope is that these negotiations move beyond short-term settlements and at least consider a multi-year commitment that provides certainty, incentivises quality and rewards clinical impact. I have been involved in such settlements in the past and it does deliver the predictability and stability that pharmacy owners need.
The pharmacy network is ready.
Now is the moment to decide whether we build a modern, clinically empowered community pharmacy service at the heart of neighbourhood health or continue asking it to do more with less.
(Harry McQuillan is chairman of Numark)
