The NHS is ‘broken’, ‘wrecked’, ‘rotting’, and Wes Streeting, the new health secretary, has been left ‘stunned by the extent of the failings’.

Faux-naif, you say? Or maybe the only two people in the country who would not expect to find catastrophic chaos in their respective departments are now in charge of them. But when the new government does decide to commence being accountable, what might Wes Streeting have planned for pharmacy?

Great stuff

Way back in January 2023, Streeting spoke up following a visit to a pharmacy organised by the NPA. “Many people still think that pharmacies are a place to get medicines you’ve been prescribed and maybe pick up some shampoo,” he said. “Pharmacies are capable of doing so much more.”

Later that year, in a speech to a buoyant Labour conference, Streeting said his plan for the NHS would have primary care at its heart and that a “greater role for community pharmacy” would be “great for patients, great for our high streets and great for poor old GPs”, who “can’t meet the demand”.

Read more: ‘No straightforward solution’: GP tech issue causes pharmacy ‘confusion’

These simple sentiments, regularly laced with empathetic anecdotes relating his own experiences of the NHS, left pharmacy looking fondly on the well-groomed and earnest Streeting. Anecdotally there is plenty of praise and optimism among community pharmacy for his sincerity (albeit delivered with the sheen of a young (41) career politician).

He built on this early connection with some specific comments at the Sigma conference in early 2024. Among other positive noises, he highlighted community pharmacy’s “untapped potential” in areas like prescribing and medicines management. He also suggested pharmacists could treat “long-term conditions like hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease”.

He also showed strong awareness of topical issues affecting the sector when he spoke up very recently about the dangers of online pharmacists supplying prescription weight-loss jabs following this C+D exclusive.

Money talks

He followed up as the election drew closer by writing this article for C+D, where he elaborated on his plans to put pharmacy at the “forefront of the health service”.

“Change with Labour, who will place value in pharmacists to help tackle the biggest crisis it has ever faced,” he wrote to C+D readers.

Many C+D readers would agree the industry is in crisis. And many would suggest the ever-decreasing reduction in funding is the biggest cause of it. And in the absence of anything approaching the successful renegotiation of one, placing a new funding deal would be a good place to start. 

Read more: Pharmacies cannot be 'shock-absorbers' for GP protest action, NPA warns

In April Streeting was asked about funding at a press conference, and his rhetoric was a little more pragmatic than usual, suggesting that pharmacy would indeed benefit from increased funding but done “in a managed way” and “over time” under Labour.

Given pharmacy needs generous funding yesterday, this is perhaps where Labour’s proposed brave new dawn for pharmacy, the NHS, and the rest, may come undone. Although there are a great many opportunities for community pharmacy afforded by its promotion towards the front of primary care, it is undoubtably starved of cash and withering on the vine.

Stephen Kinnock is the new pharmacy minister (his full title is minister of state for care at the Department of Health and Social Care) and he may already conclude that the issues facing community pharmacy are many and varied, but the dearth of funding overshadows them all.

Read more: CPE hires consultancy to ‘strengthen’ funding negotiations

The new health secretary is focused on doctors at the moment, and he has already triumphantly announced a breakthrough in dealings with junior doctors (by offering a relatively whopping 22% rise), though nothing has been agreed. And a fresh wave of strikes has already been threatened for next year. And now GPs have voted to take collective action.

This medical mess reiterates that whatever financial challenges the new government has to address from a pharmacy perspective, it has many others coming from elsewhere in the healthcare space. And so far the pecking order has a familiar ring.

“As well as finding a resolution to the doctors disputes, the new government must forge a new deal with community pharmacy which funds us properly, treats us with respect and keeps our doors open to serve patients,” said the NPA this week.

Plus ça change. Labour remains on honeymoon, but it needs to fly home soon. Reality, and taking responsibility for it, awaits.