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The Independent Pharmacy Awards shone the spotlight on the inspiring work of independent pharmacists and their teams across th UK.
The Awards at the House of Commons, held in association with Independent Community Pharmacist magazine, drew politicians, pharmaceutical company executives and leading figures from across the pharmacy industry and NHS, including the Conservative MP Bob Neill, PSNC chief executive Janet Morrison and David Webb and Andrew Evans, the chief pharmaceutical officers for England and Wales respectively.
In an impassioned speech, Evans told the Awards that community pharmacy in Wales had received good support from the Welsh government, including “a sweeping set of reforms to the contractual framework” for all 712 community pharmacies in the country.
Those reforms, he said, were underpinned by six principles; capacity, capability, collaboration, continuity, community and connectivity, all of which would continue to “rapidly expand the clinical role of pharmacists” and “incentivise workforce development.”
Evans said increasing investment in community pharmacy made by the Welsh government, including an additional £6 million in this financial year, “encourages and rewards pharmacies that do more of the things the NHS needs."
He spoke enthusiastically about the “nationally directed clinical community pharmacy service,” implemented by the Welsh government in April which has enabled pharmacies in Wales to provide common ailments, seasonal influenza, emergency contraception and emergency medicine supply services across the country.
He also revealed one in five pharmacies in Wales now provides independent prescribing services and insisted there are “plans to take us to one in three by early next year, half of all pharmacies by 2025 and every pharmacy well before the end of the decade.”
ICP editor Neil Trainis warned that in England, flat central funding could see independents already struggling with rising overheads and the cost-of-living crisis close their doors. He urged the government to put more funding into the community pharmacy contractual framework or risk endangering the community pharmacy network.
