In an attempt to understand the daily struggles of pharmacy teams, members of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)’s medicines supply team went on a series of pharmacy visits last week.
The visit, hosted by Community Pharmacy England (CPE) committee members David Broome and Phil Day, along with Ashley Cohen, chair of Community Pharmacy West Yorkshire, aimed to learn the difficulties faced by pharmacy teams in sourcing medicines and other obstacles.
CPE said the visit was an opportunity for the DHSC officials to realise the day-to-day hardships of every pharmacist to source stock and manage short supply protocols while serving the patients with quality care.
During the meeting with the officials, CPE said it discussed pharmacy concerns such as persistent shortages, access to medicines and the use of serious shortage protocols (SSPs).
CPE has consistently alerted the government that the medicine supply issues are pressurising the pharmacy network in the form of workload escalation, cost rises, and increased risk of delays for patients.
The pharmacy visit was part of their plan to make the government and the NHS aware of the range of burdens on community pharmacies, the organisation added.
“This was an important opportunity to show the frontline pressures pharmacy teams are managing every day, exposing government officials to the realities on the ground,” commented James Davies, director of Research and Insight at CPE.
“Visits and discussions like these help us to make the case for improved funding and support for community pharmacies and ensure that national policy reflects real-world conditions.”
