Pharmacy funding deal helps secure new services for patients across England

The Government’s Department for Health and Social Care has agreed a deal worth £617m with Community Pharmacy England as the first step of its “Plan for Change.”

The investment aims to address the recent years’ underfunding of the sector that has left it facing serious financial issues.

As well as the financial benefits, the investment aims to provide added services, as to help shift the focus of care away from hospitals onto high streets, and make them more readily and easily available to the public.

An aerial view of the Sunderland Royal Hospital, North East England, UK (Credit Image: Paul White North East England / Alamy Stock Photo)

Those benefits include: the “morning after pill” becoming free of charge for the first time, offering support at pharmacies for patients prescribed antidepressants, providing a pharmacy team with a wider range of services, such as medicine and prescription advice, financial incentives for pharmacists to identify undiagnosed blood pressure issues to take the stress from GPs, and boosting medicine supply for prescriptions to be more easily accessed.

Meadhdh Conway, a pharmacy lecturer at the University of Sunderland, expressed that “this new funding deal provides support for pharmacies to continue to deliver essential dispensing services whilst expanding clinical services such as the high blood pressure identification service.

“The role of the community pharmacist has expanded over the past decade to meet the needs of the healthcare system and the needs of the local community, and this deal supports this expansion.”

The funding deal, as well as the initial figure of investment, aims to write off £193m of debt by community pharmacy owners, which aimed to boost their confidence at the start of the current financial year.

A large ‘thank you’ rainbow on display in Herrington Country Park in Sunderland to show the city’s appreciation for all NHS, social care, care, key and frontline workers who are working hard through the coronavirus pandemic. (Credit Image: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo)

This is the first move for the government’s newly imposed “Plan for Change”, which outlines as one of it’s missions to ‘build an NHS fit for the future’, with this step hoping to alleviate pressure from GPs and hospitals to provide instant help for patients in need.

Mark Stafford, a community pharmacist in Newcastle, believes that “the traditional model of only dispensing prescriptions is simply not a reliable business model for community pharmacies, where often prescriptions are dispensed at a financial loss to the pharmacy.

“Therefore most are looking for extra services to offer patients in order to create a viable business and stay relevant on the high street.”

He continued: “I feel the Plan for Change signifies a renewed focus on integrating pharmacies more deeply into the healthcare system, recognising their potential to alleviate pressures on the healthcare system as a whole.

“There is a wealth of expertise available on the high street but unfortunately has been an untapped source, so by finding a way to make use of this but finding it properly is definitely progress.”