CPE chief executive Janet Morrison recalls community pharmacy’s 2023 highs and lows

Janet believes pharmacy first service and expansion of contraception and blood pressure checking services are a big step forwards for community pharmacies.

Community Pharmacy England (CPE) chief executive Janet Morrison has reflected on the highs and lows of the sector from the past 12 months in her end of year blog published on Wednesday.

Janet is proud of what the sector has achieved in 2023, including the huge number of services delivered for patients despite ongoing pressures, the agreement of a national Pharmacy First service and the most significant investment in community pharmacy for well over a decade.

But she also pointed that that the past year has been extremely tough for pharmacy owners and their teams as they battle immense financial and operational challenges, resulting in recent wave of consolidations and closures across the sector.

Photo credit:CPE

Speaking about community pharmacy’s 2023 lows, she cited their 2023 Pharmacy Pressures Survey, which found that the majority (96 per cent) of pharmacy owners were facing significantly higher costs than the previous year.

While 97 per cent of them reported significant increases in wholesaler and medicine supply issues, 92 per cent had seen a big rise in requests from patients unable to access General Practice, according to the survey.

Acknowledging that it's hard to be optimistic about the future in the current pressurised atmosphere, Janet identifies some glimmers of hope such as the Vision for Community Pharmacy, the Pharmacy Inquiry by the Parliamentary Health and Social Care Committee, as well as the new Pharmacy First service.

She wrote: “The Vision for Community Pharmacy, developed by leading the influential healthcare think tanks Nuffield Trust and The King’s Fund, has set out a bold plan for the sector. It has provided us with a powerful influencing tool and the implications of this are being considered alongside the wider development of a strategy for Community Pharmacy England.

“This work, coupled with a Pharmacy Inquiry by the Parliamentary Health and Social Care Committee, will prove critical in determining how we can transform community pharmacy to become what the public, the NHS, and the Government need it to be.

“And then there is the new Pharmacy First service – the most strategically significant service in many years. £645 million is a critical injection of funding and a welcome vote of confidence in our future from Government and the NHS.”

She believes that the introduction of Pharmacy First and expansion of contraception and blood pressure checking services are a big step forwards for local pharmacies and their patients.

Highlighting that many pharmacies struggling to stay afloat due to lack of fund, Janet's end of year blog underscored the need for a significant increase to the core funding contract.