If you’ve walked down “any high street, stood in a village square, or spent time on an estate, you’ll already find a neighbourhood health hub - it’s called your local community pharmacy,” wrote National Pharmacy Association (NPA) vice chair Sukhi Basra. “You call it neighbourhood healthcare. We call it a Tuesday.” 

She added “in this bold new NHS plan, pharmacy is barely a footnote” and community pharmacy is "asking for equity” in the NHS, considering the sector is already open seven days a week, delivering walk-in vaccinations and providing weight management, contraception and smoking cessation services. 

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“Why build new neighbourhood hubs when 11,500 pharmacies already exist, standing ready yet underfunded?” Basra said. 

Smug 

Community pharmacy owner Reena Barai said she was “a little smug” when reading the 10-year plan because “much of what is believed to be ‘fit for the future’ is my current present”. 

This includes her pharmacy delivering care clinics as part of the independent prescribing (IP) pathfinder service, screening for cardiovascular disease, and offering emergency hormonal contraception as part of a locally commissioned scheme. 

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“I’ve been getting ready for this change over the last 5 years,” she adds. 

Former NPA chief executive and Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) fellow Michael Holden retorted “why five years, why not now?” in response to the timeline of transition from dispensing to more clinical services. 

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He agreed with Barai that community pharmacy is already delivering on managing long-term conditions like high blood pressure and obesity “so start now”, as well as praising the joining up to the Single Patient Record as “about time!”. 

Pickle 

On moving to a Single National Formulary (SNF) within two years, community pharmacist Ben Merriman highlighted guidance referring to “local prescribers (such as clinicians and pharmacists)”. 

"Why would you not regard a pharmacist as a clinician?” he wrote. “Are we back to sandwiches and shampoo?” 

Humber and North Yorkshire ICB chief pharmacy officer Laura Angus wrote that she had seen the pharmacy updates along with “GPs cheering about the parts that relate to general practice” as well as for those working on prevention.  

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She added: “That’s all great but I feel it’s missing the point. We’ve got all of those parts, we’ve had them for a very long time, but we’re still in quite a pickle.  

“It has to be how they’re going to work together and in a different way that is going to make the difference. It has to make a difference.” 

Barriers 

Community pharmacy owner Dervis Alkan Gurol said “one area where this new NHS Plan falls short is not just in underestimating how poor a partner the NHS can be, but in failing to address how structurally closed off it remains to new entrants who are often best placed to drive innovation”. 

“The barriers to entry, whether via procurement hurdles, clear commissioning structures, or outright exclusion from key frameworks, seem almost designed to preserve the status quo, benefitting existing providers rather than encouraging a dynamic ecosystem of small, agile and focused innovators,” he said. 

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And Chemist4U chief executive James O’Loan said he welcomed the plan’s recognition of obesity as a condition requiring “clinical intervention and ongoing support”. 

He added “better integration and a focus on patient experience must be a priority” and would help the NHS “realise its digital goals and improve patient outcomes”. 

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