Weekend opinion: We must help the Government find the solutions it needs

Community pharmacy needs to lean into the priorities of the health secretary and articulate how we can provide solutions to the political and healthcare challenges the new Government faces.

Probably the biggest and most direct opportunity lies within Pharmacy First. With further investment this service can be expanded to cover a much wider range of conditions, shift patient behaviours fundamentally and begin to make an impression on the 8am scramble for a GP appointment.

But what about the 8 million people currently on a waiting list for NHS treatment, including many awaiting surgery? Our expanded clinical input, properly resourced, would free up capacity in general practice to slow patients’ decline while they wait for secondary and tertiary care.

Bouncing back

We can also stop people bouncing back into hospitals, by building on the Discharge Medicines Service (DMS), which is currently patchy but works very well in some places. Evidence suggests DMS has the potential to remove the need for more than 29,000 readmissions to hospital every year.  

In the longer term, we can help the population to stay well, and therefore out of hospital, across a range of long-term medical conditions. That’s where hypertension case-finding, pharmacy weight loss schemes and help to quit smoking come into play – and why not the NHS Health Check commissioned as a national community pharmacy service?

Another priority for the Government – even more so for Chancellor Rachel Reeves than for Wes Streeting – is to minimise any unnecessary expenditure and balance the books. Here, too, we mustn’t be shy of presenting bold solutions.  

Optimal use

By optimising medicines use, we can help ensure every penny of the drugs budget is well spent. Total spending on medicines is the second highest cost to the NHS (after staff) and covers nearly 10 per cent of all healthcare spending. Yet up to half of medicines prescribed for long-term conditions are not taken as intended. 

Once again, community pharmacy is a natural place to look for solutions. At a time when NHS resources are stretched, ensuring the best use of these medicines is essential for both individual patients and taxpayers.

The NPA has been making a lot of noise about funding, protesting vociferously about a decade of underfunding, but ultimately we want to be presenting solutions, not problems.

Pharmacy is a can-do profession and the sector’s future success relies on being seen as a provider of solutions, as well as healthcare.