Matt Hancock to address Sigma webinar on June 23

Community pharmacy contractors will hear from Matt Hancock on the new health and care bill during a webinar to be hosted by Sigma Pharmaceuticals on June 23.

This will be the first time the health secretary will be taking questions from contractors on the new government proposals to join up England's health and care services.

A white paper launched in February outlined plans to drive integration and support greater collaboration through integrated care systems (ICS) and embed lessons learned from the coronavirus pandemic. Hancock will be expected to expand on proposals to make integrated care the default, reduce legal bureaucracy, and better support social care, public health and the NHS.

Webinar starts at 6pm

The new Sigma webinar titled 'Taking Pharmacy Forward towards the new Health Bill' will start at 6 pm on Wednesday with the health secretary's address and Q&A, followed by a panel discussion on proposed changes to the NHS which will be moderated by former pharmacy minister Steve Brine MP.

Dean Russell, the Conservative MP for Watford, and Mark Lyonette, chief executive of National Pharmacy Association will join the discussion alongside Sigma CEO Bharat Shah and executive director Hatul Shah.

Sigma's first webinar

Sigma hosted its first webinar in the 'Taking Pharmacy Forward' series in February in which vaccines minister Nadhim Zawahi and PSNC chief Simon Dukes took questions from the online audience, most of whom were community pharmacy contractors and other stakeholders.

The webinars are free for all community pharmacists and healthcare professionals provided they registered online at the company’s website.

Sigma Pharmaceuticals is one of the UK’s largest independent short-line pharmacy wholesalers and has been in operation since 1982.