Pharmacists working in general practice and the NHS are expected to get a pay rise of 2.5 percent for the next financial year.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in its submission to the pay review bodies for general practice and NHS staff stated that it has developed financial and delivery plans which currently allow for a pay uplift of 2.5 percent "without having to make trade-offs against headline government health commitments".
The DHSC said the Government has been clear in the spending review (SR) that pay awards need to be funded from within the allocated budgets, and there will be no access to the reserve.
Should the independent pay review bodies recommend an award above this level, we would need to consider whether and how this could be made affordable from within existing DHSC budgets.
Accepting such an award would inevitably have an impact on healthcare delivery, it added.
The DHSC said staffing costs are the largest single area of NHS expenditure, and it is likely that higher pay awards will affect its ability to maintain or expand staffing levels.
It pointed out that as part of the Plan for Change and the 10 Year Health Plan, it needs to deliver more services and meet performance expectations, while as well as factor in inflation and other cost increases.
DHSC is balancing these spending commitments across NHS England, its other arm's-length bodies (ALBs) and the core department, with an ambitious productivity assumption of 2 percent each year in the NHS which will be required to deliver to balance the settlement.
Independent prescribers
It said that from 2026, NHS England’s Newly Qualified Pharmacist pathway will evolve into an ‘Early Careers Pharmacist’ pathway, mapped against new registrant and cross-sector workforce needs.
The pathway will prepare future pharmacists to integrate into cross-sector, multiprofessional teams.
Pharmacists joining the register in Summer 2026 will be independent prescribers at the point of first registration.
This new workforce with greater clinical capability and legal prescribing rights will be positioned to deliver healthcare via new and evolving models of service delivery.
Doctors strike
Meanwhile, the resident doctors in England had earlier announced that they would go on strike from November 14 to 19, following the failure of talks with the government.
The British Medical Association has said the government has failed to come out with a "credible plan" to address unemployment among newly qualified doctors and years of real-terms pay erosion.
