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The idea the Conservatives could return to power any time soon feels utterly ludicrous despite the mayhem engulfing prime minister Keir Starmer.

That should reassure community pharmacy and, dare I say, generate optimism about the future. If you think that’s harsh on the Tories, you should be reminded that some 10 years ago, they slashed the sector’s funding, forcing pharmacies to close and leaving others dangling over the precipice. The ones that survived still bear the brunt of that decision today.  

In one sense, the Tories have almost become the forgotten party because the focal point of political debate now is Starmerism versus Faragism. But memories are long, especially in pharmacy.

As I listened to Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary when the cuts were implemented, tell the Company Chemists’ Association conference in London this month that the NHS “would have fallen over” during Covid had it not been for pharmacies and schmoozing that pharmacy was the “Cinderella of the NHS”, someone in the auditorium let off a sigh. Irritation hung in the air.

I wondered if Hunt was suffering from selective memory. When it was pointed out his waxing lyrical of pharmacy was at odds with his government’s treatment of pharmacies, he was taken aback. 

“There were lots of areas of funding I wished we had more money for,” he said, his earlier enthusiasm replaced by weary defiance. He tried to fend off criticism of his time as health secretary by insisting he introduced mechanisms to support pharmacy, such as the access and quality payment schemes and integration fund.

He accepted pharmacy “needed more money” but, like a boxer clambering off the ropes after a sucker punch, came out swinging, insisting “it was a very difficult period” and maintaining he negotiated a £21 billion increase in the NHS budget before he left as health secretary.

Hunt even managed a dig at Labour, suggesting its commitment to increase the budget by three per cent annually compared with 3.3 per cent offered by the Tories in 2019.

He finished with the admission: “Do I accept the case that the sector needed more resources? Yes, I do.” It was as if he was trying to mend the paddock long after the horse had bolted.

Neil Trainis is the editor of Independent Communitty Pharmacist.