Labour shadow ministers ‘talk differently’ about the pharmacy sector compared to the sitting Conservative government, AIMp chief Leyla Hannbeck has claimed.

In a panel discussion yesterday (October 15) at the Pharmacy Show in Birmingham, Ms Hannbeck said she had attended this year’s Labour conference in Liverpool and spoken to both shadow health secretary Wes Streeting and shadow treasury officials, commenting: “There is a different talk about community pharmacy, in that they view us as a valuable tool for achieving what needs to be achieved in primary care.”

In his conference speech last week, Mr Streeting said improving primary care access is a key pillar in his ambitions to reform the health service.

Ms Hannbeck said she had sought meetings with Labour officials because there is “a very big chance” that they will form a government after the next general election, adding that lobbying politicians of all stripes effectively will be important to curb the rising pace of community pharmacy closures.

“In six months’ time we will be seeing more pharmacies close for good due to financial pressures – that’s the reality,” she said, adding: “How we put pharmacy across to them, how we manage to sell our community pharmacies as assets that they should be investing in – that is what our job is.

“GPs want something, secondary care wants something; everybody is asking for something and it’s incredibly difficult for a government to prioritise what need to happen. That’s why it’s important for us to put the case forward in terms of added value to the health system and taxpayer’ money. We need to have a realistic vision, not just a wish list.”

She said Labour has “seen how many pharmacies are going out of business now and the impact it has on local populations in areas of deprivation, and how many of those patients will land on the doors of GPs”.

Ms Hannbeck acknowledged that while “politicians can talk,” once in government the reality can be different, concluding that the sector “must get in there and lobby hard”.

In a note of caution, Community Pharmacy England services director Alastair Buxton said: “Is Wes Streeting going to have a massive new budget [if Labour are elected]? No, probably not.

“However, he is very clearly talking about investing in primary care.”

Speaking to P3pharmacy after the Pharmacy Show, CPE chief Janet Morrison said: “Engaging with the Shadow Health Team is always an important job to do: all MPs are critical in holding Governments to account for their policies and can help to raise community pharmacy up the political agenda, and of course in politics, anything can change in an instant. Building advocates for community pharmacies across all political parties has been our goal for many years, and ensuring support for pharmacy across the political spectrum has never been more important as a General Election looms. 

"We have been engaging with Wes Streeting and his Parliamentary team and policy advisors for many months – this has included briefing his policy lead on a regular basis, speaking with Wes at local pharmacy visits, attending roundtable events with other Shadow Primary Care Ministers, and sharing briefing documents with all members of the Shadow Health Team. Earlier this year, we made a submission to the National Policy. Forum, and were pleased to see much of our policy asks reflected in the Labour Party's Five missions for a better future.

 "We have also been working the other healthcare professionals to brief the team more widely on the need for further investment in primary care: we hope to have some updates on this work soon.

 "All of this work will continue at pace as we approach a General Election for which the polls currently indicate a Labour win. However, engagement is ongoing with all three main political parties.

"Ahead of that election it has been encouraging to hear MPs across all parties talking about a shift in focus onto primary care and prevention. While they are also cautioning about tight fiscal constraints, this shift into primary does present an opportunity pharmacy on which we will capitalise: the vision that we recently commissioned helps us to do this, giving independent support for the policy. Our focus remains on using that vision and other data and analysis to keep building support for investment into community pharmacy, influencing manifesto commitments as well as wider policy thinking.”