The health secretary has criticised the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) for “an unhelpful degree of sabre-rattling and threats of collective action” at a Labour Party conference session this week (September 22).

Speaking at a “Future for health and social care” panel at the Labour Party Annual Conference in Liverpool, Wes Streeting said that “the fact is collective action, whether by GPs or pharmacists, will harm patients and make the relationship with patients worse”.

Read more: Saturday shutdown: Pharmacy protest ballot could see weekend closures

“It will also put pressure on other parts of the system and people should be clearsighted about that – that those kinds of tactics only make things harder to turn around, not easier; make things harder for patients, not better; and make things harder for their colleagues in the NHS,” he added.

The NPA last week announced plans to ballot its members for the very first time on GP-style “work to rule” action from this week, warning it could result in “a lot” of pharmacies shutting on Saturdays by the end of the year.

 

No change “if we’re at loggerheads”

 

Streeting said that he understands “the scale of the challenge” for the sector but “could not understand from a tactical point of view” why collective action was threatened just “weeks into a brand new government”.

“When we were 14 years into a Conservative government, people hadn’t seen change — in fact, they’d only seen change for the worse and things getting harder not easier…[such as] pharmacies closing left, right and centre, even though the last government was talking about Pharmacy First,” he added.

Read more: NPA CEO Paul Rees talks ballots and bargaining power

The health secretary reiterated plans to bring “real improvement” for pharmacies by shifting the “centre of gravity” into the community and growing primary care “as a proportion of the NHS’s spending”.

“But we can only do this if we’re a team and we can’t do this if we’re at loggerheads,” he stressed.

Read more: ‘Enough is enough’: Whistles and crisis at #SaveOurPharmacies protest

“The offer of working together in partnership is there; I really hope people take the opportunity and grasp our hand and actually I find talking to GPs and pharmacists, that’s exactly where people are up for change, they’re up for the challenge and they want to see us deliver the things that we said we will,” he said.

NPA chief executive Paul Rees said that the membership organisation was “pleased” that Streeting “has seen the anger and frustration of pharmacies”.

The NPA would “be delighted to talk to him about stabilising the network and transforming what pharmacies can offer to deliver real benefits to communities”, he added.

 

“From competition to collaboration”

 

Meanwhile, the health secretary did not mention pharmacy in his keynote speech at the Labour Party conference yesterday (September 25).

But Rees said that "it was good to hear [his] intention to transform the health service to focus on prevention as well as increased care in the community”.

"If the government is to be successful in transforming primary care, it must first reverse these cuts to community pharmacy - this will…allow pharmacies to take on a new expanded role in delivering care for patients," he added.

Read more: ‘Prepared to protest’: CPE and NPA considering GP-style collective action

Pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock also outlined moving from “sickness to prevention”,  “hospital to community” and “analogue to digital” as three key areas for NHS reform at a Labour Party conference fringe event organised by think tank Reform and Community Pharmacy England (CPE) this week (September 23).

Speaking at the event, Kinnock added that we need “GPs and pharmacists round the table” to “move from competition to collaboration”.

It comes as CPE last week published poll data revealing that “almost half” of respondents had “seen a reduction in Pharmacy First referrals” due to GP collective action.