The latest situation from NPA chairman Ian Strachan

A case management hearing in the High Court has determined that the National Pharmacy Association will have its case against pharmacy funding cuts heard in March, alongside the case being brought by the PSNC.

NPA and PSNC will present separate yet complementary cases. Both organisations are seeking a Judicial Review of the Government’s decision to impose funding cuts on pharmacies in England.

A High Court judge decided that both actions will be considered during the same hearing, which is scheduled for week commencing 20 March. The NPA will challenge the Department of Health on the Government’s failure to consider properly
the impact its cuts will have on the elderly, the disabled and people from black and minority ethnic communities, and the Government’s failure to appreciate the wide primary healthcare role fulfilled by community pharmacists beyond dispensing.

NPA Chairman, Ian Strachan, said: “We are fighting this case to protect patients and communities in deprived areas, and to smoke out the flawed thinking behind the Government cuts to pharmacy funding. Had the Department of Health properly considered the impact of its cuts, it would have realised that the cuts will have a disproportionate effect on people with legally protected characteristics and those who live in the most deprived areas of England, where there is already a lack of NHS healthcare provision.

"It makes sense to consider the NPA and PSNC cases at the same hearing, given that we are seeking the same outcome, namely a review of the decision to cut pharmacy funding in the period 2016/18.”

If either the NPA or PSNC legal arguments are successful, it is open to the judge to quash the DH funding decision of 20 October.