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As community pharmacy dares to think how deep the financial chasm threatening to swallow it is, perhaps answers to some pertinent questions will emerge by March 14.

At least, that’s what health and social care committee chair Layla Moran hopes. Her questions to outgoing NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard last week consisted of ‘when do you anticipate the analysis will be fully completed? Do you intend to publish it in full? When will it be published?'

And 'if not, why, and what will you publish instead?’

Personally, I'd like answers to these questions now. In any case, I doubt these queries left Pritchard sweating. She has not come across as a passionate advocate of community pharmacy and by the end of this month, she will have ridden off into the sunset with a six-figure pay-off.

Scrutiny should be aimed at Community Pharmacy England

But as important as Moran’s questions were, scrutiny should be aimed at Community Pharmacy England too.

The economic analysis, crucial to inform funding talks which are taking place now between CPE and the government, should have been published before the latest negotiations officially started in January.

That would have given contractors transparency and a barometer with which to measure CPE’s performance right from the start of those talks. Yet we’re in the absurd situation where discussions have started and we’re only at the “draft” stage of the report.

Why is a draft report needed anyway? Surely, the facts and figures that came out in the analysis are what they are. “Draft” suggests there is some tinkering to do and that’s an unsettling thought.

It would be pointless making review public when funding talks have finished

Did CPE press NHSE to publish the full analysis before agreeing to enter into funding talks? If not, why not? CPE said NHSE is “committed to publishing the report” but when?

An economic review that is supposed to underpin funding negotiations would be pointless if it is made public when talks have finished.

Looking at this from CPE’s perspective, if the pharmacy funding black hole figure had been published before negotiations had begun, the government may have publicly said ‘sorry, we can’t afford to plug that gap’.

Who knows. What we do know is we’re left with many more questions than answers at a time when the last thing a struggling community pharmacy network needs is to be left flailing in the dark.

Neil Trainis is the editor of Independent Community Pharmacist.