I’m confident investment will come for independent pharmacy. But we must be under no illusion this will mean reform too, says Nick Kaye…

I get asked lots and lots of questions in my various roles. For example, can community pharmacy in England get fair funding for its role?

Will its role change? And as the new year starts, will 2025 be the year that allows community pharmacy to stabilise? Or will it be the year when it continues to wither?

Although I get asked these questions, it has been the privilege of my professional career to have been the chair of the National Pharmacy Association over the last two years.

It has pushed me to think in a way that I never did before. The responsibility of the role to the organisation and its members is not lost on me, nor is the insight it gives me into conversations as to where we are heading as a profession.

It is clear to me that community pharmacy is needed more than ever within the healthcare landscape and fits uniquely to help deliver health secretary Wes Streeting’s missions for the NHS –  ‘care closer to home, prevention not illness, digital not analogue.’

What I say to those asking questions is ‘yes, I do strongly believe that there will be a change in NHS funding for community pharmacy and I believe it will be a positive investment. But as a group of contractors, we also need to be mindful that what the NHS wants to buy from us will be changing.’

It is clear that medicines supply should and will be a central part of what we do, but we need to start asking ourselves is the current funding model fit for purpose? Does category M and retained margin work for you?

We are told that the £800 million is distributed across the pharmacy estate in England but do you know if you get your fair share? Is it time to think about different ways to share the dispensing part of our funding we get from the NHS? These are the questions we should all be asking ourselves.

I also believe that because of our knowledge of medicines and accessibility, community pharmacy will play a larger role in both medicines optimisation and on-the-day demand.

I think this will see a growing of minor ailments as part of Pharmacy First using independent prescribers for a wider range of conditions. As far as e minor illness is concerned, we need patients go to the pharmacy as the first port of call.

We need to look at what is already happening in the devolved nations, we need a continued uplift in funding as those systems continue to invest in effective healthcare and medicines supply.

For medicines optimisation, why couldn’t we change medication in line with formulary choices to maintain patient supply? We do this every day when item X is out of stock.

We should be able to prescribe item Y, we should just be able to swap them over. The current system is waste of everyone’s time. If medicines optimisation strategies are written by national or local NHS teams, then let us be paid for implementing those changes.

We can make use of our entire teams with these changes. Pharmacy technicians and an upskilled workforce will be key, whilst having the business confidence to invest in our premises and IT. This can only come with the financial stability that is so disparately needed.

I know how ironic some of this may sound because, as I write this, we are 300 days out of contract in England and I’m chair of an organisation that for the first time in its 103-year history is asking its members to take collective action.

But it is because of this strong united position and the clear mandate we received from the majority of our members to stand up and be noticed, that I believe investment will come.

However, we must be under no illusion that reform will come with it and the real question is are we ready for that? I know you will be.

You have shown that the record numbers of you training for Pharmacy First, when given the opportunity and without relying on referrals and having to jump through hoops, as a sector we can excel.

I know you and your teams will be ready to rise to the challenge of 2025 when it comes.

Nick Kaye is the chair of the National Pharmacy Association and a community pharmacist based in Newquay. These are his personal views.