Independents have been flirting with financial meltdown for so long now that they could be forgiven for treating any positive development with suspicion.

Years of neglect by the government has put some of them in a glass-half-empty frame of mind. This struck me this month. The health and social care select committee chair Steve Brine took umbrage with an editorial I wrote in which I suggested a change of government might improve my readership’s prospects (he described my article as “especially partisan” even though I was writing out of objective concern for my readers, not an allegiance to a political party.)

Nonetheless, it was nice to hear from Mr Brine, who said he’s a regular ICP reader and revealed his Committee would pursue an inquiry into community pharmacy this year, to the joy of some but not others. “There may not be any community pharmacies left by then,” one pharmacist tweeted. Another suggested he “probably thinks everyone will forget and it won’t actually happen.”

However, an inquiry sounded great – just what community pharmacies need as they continue to struggle against poor funding. Then, a week later, news broke that the Department of Health and Social Care had decided to remove transitional payments from next month. PSNC chief executive Janet Morrison hit back, insisting it could “be the final straw” for pharmacies “on the brink of collapse.”

At that moment, it occurred to me that it must be almost impossible for independents to look ahead with any optimism. Around the same time, the All-Party Pharmacy Group, of which Mr Brine is a member, released a report urging the government to better fund community pharmacy and give it more involvement in the development of policies.

I wondered what impact the report will have. Will it influence the government or will it achieve nothing and be forgotten in six months? Indeed, would an inquiry into community pharmacy achieve anything?

Mr Brine declined my invitation of an interview to allow him to expand on his remarks to me. But I hope he gives community pharmacies something to look forward to by fulfilling his promise of that inquiry. 

Neil Trainis is the editor of Independent Community Pharmacist.