Pharmacies should be considered the front door to the NHS – the first port of call for any health-related issues. 

We are easily accessible and can provide same-day care, advice and support. This mindset and understanding already exists in Scotland and, to a growing extent, in Wales, where a ‘pharmacy first’ approach is gaining traction and pharmacists are able to prescribe for patients. 

Game changer

By 2026, all new pharmacy graduates will qualify as prescribers. With sufficient political, managerial and professional will, utilising this resource in community pharmacies in England could be a game changer in terms of our ability to treat people more conveniently and take pressure off doctors. 

All these things should mean that policymakers and NHS officials are falling over themselves to invest in us.
We hear the increasingly positive noises from NHS England and our political leaders in Westminster in support of community pharmacies – but this is not matched by any financial investment.

None of these things can happen, I told the APPG, if there is no funding to create the capacity needed to deliver these objectives. We can’t take the road that the NHS, the Government and patients want us to take if there is no fuel in the tank.  

Community pharmacies are running on fumes – and the network can only take so much until it breaks down.