By Jeremy Meader
The Chancellor recently announced a further £29bn funding for the National Health Service which undoubtedly will be welcome, as the health sector enters a new financial year.
Despite Rachel Reeves’ best efforts there were undoubtedly a lot of issues not addressed. Whilst the pledge for finance to the NHS was clear - a major part of that sector, pharmacy, went unmentioned throughout the spring statement.
This seems strange given the spring statement arrived not long after the Government commissioned, damning report, highlighting a £2bn funding gap which still remains for pharmacy.
It has left more questions being asked than those which are being answered as many in the pharmacy sector wonder how their plans can be implemented without knowing how much funding they will receive in the future.
The recent increase in funding for 2025/26 has in reality simply offset the increases in minimum wage, national insurance and business rates that kicked in from the 1st of April.
Many pharmacy owners would like to be in a position to confidently invest in developing new services, in improving the fabric of their premises, as well as in innovation and technology. However, it’s extremely difficult to make such investment decisions without certainty and confidence over future funding.
This decision in the spring statement comes at a time where pharmacy continues to prove its value to the NHS. Pharmacies have adapted to Pharmacy First but have the potential to offer so much more and can relieve pressure on GPs and A&E if funding is forthcoming.
While the NHS 10-year plan offers a view on the potential role that pharmacy could play providing more services at the heart of communities, there are still serious questions which must be answered and none more serious that how the sector will be funded to deliver this vision.
This is especially pertinent given that CPE negotiations are due to start with the NHS in the next couple of months.
The executive summary of the NHS 10-year plan states, “We will reinvent the NHS through 3 radical shifts - hospital to community, analogue to digital and sickness to prevention. These will be the core components of our new care model. To support the scale of change we need, we will ensure the whole NHS is ready to deliver these 3 shifts at pace: through a new operating model, by ushering in a new era of transparency; by creating a new workforce model with staff genuinely aligned with the future direction of reform, through a reshaped innovation strategy; by taking a different approach to NHS finances.”
The 10-year plan highlights an increase in the role of community pharmacy in the management of long-term conditions and link them to the single patient record, but makes no reference to funding, other than a reference to “introduce multi-year budgets”.
Pharmacy services
Weight management is a great example of a service that pharmacy is extremely well placed to deliver, at the heart of local communities. The stats which show that obesity is affecting more than a quarter of adults across the UK has put tremendous strain on healthcare.
Pharmacy is aiding the NHS by helping adults lose weight through safe, certified weight loss jabs, but this could be dramatically expanded. It must be remembered that over £6.5 billion is being spent on obesity, so the long-term benefits are potentially vast.
On average patients are losing around 20 per cent of their body weight and this must be capitalised on by CPE in negotiations to ensure that more and more people can be helped in their weight loss journey. Pharmacies can play a major role in reducing the obesity cost burden on the NHS.
Many in the pharmacy sector are still counting balance sheets and are hand to mouth, from one PPS payment to the next, worrying how they will be able to balance the books and survive.
It is imperative that the NHS 10-year plan comes forward with the Government to allow our pharmacy sector to know exactly how we will be funded for the next decade - a decade that will be crucial in reducing the amount spent on obesity through the NHS.
This must be one of the biggest conversations to be had as we look ahead to the next round of negotiation between the NHS and CPE, we must make sure that Pharmacy is receiving the money it needs to continue to offer a broader range of services to patients and helping deliver the Governments 10-year NHS plan.
Jeremy Meader is the Chief Wholesale Officer of Bestway Healthcare, overseeing brands such as Lexon, Wardles, and Bestway Medhub. Jeremy has over 25 years of experience in the UK pharmaceutical sector, and has worked in executive roles across the industry.
