Just like that, the summer is over and we are entering the annual season of conferences, awards and a new event this year with the recent NPA’s second day of Action.

Community Pharmacy used to have a quiet period over the summer and would use this time to rest, enjoy holidays, catch up and prepare for the rush of winter pressures – or was that just a dream? I cannot remember the last summer that was restful.

Perhaps pre-COVID things were different, but that was four years ago. It's time for us to change the narrative and get used to our ‘new’ reality. Community Pharmacy is feeling the pressure all year round.

Read more: Revealed: Almost 47,000 hours lost to temporary pharmacy closures last year

There has been a lot of noise from our new government about the future of the NHS, last week in particular at the Labour party conference, but I ask myself where does community pharmacy fit in? And is there enough focus on us as a sector?

I would say ‘No’, at this point. Am I surprised we are on the bottom of the list? Not really, I’m used to it.

The NPA’s second day of action seemed very successful, if all the media coverage was anything to go by, and I understand they are now balloting members on whether they would like to take part in a type of collective action.

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As Xrayser, I feel as though I am meant to have an opinion on this. I’m not sure what I think, but I stand by what I’ve always said, if we do anything it has to be united across the whole sector. It was great to see a collection of leaders presenting a petition to No 10 last week, but where was the leader of IPA?

They were in parliament the week before, meeting with MP’s, which is great, but why don’t the representative bodies all work together? United we stand, divided we fall? Social media is full of posts of all the different representative bodies sharing conversations and or pics with decision makers, but where is the unity?

One leader even slated the others calling their work “tacky actions” and stating that they represent with “no exaggerations” - how does this look to the decision makers?

I used to pride myself on being a pharmacist. We are pillars of the community that behave professionally – it’s so disappointing to see this behaviour on public forums.

Read more: IPA delivers ‘prescription’ to save the sector to Number 10

Going back to the topic of collective action, we need to ask ourselves ‘Is this currently working for GP’s?’

In our local area when talking to colleagues we have not yet noticed the GP collective action having any impact on patients or ultimately increasing community pharmacy footfall, which I initially thought might happen.

Talking to colleague GP’s, they are suggesting that they haven’t really got started yet due to the summer, but we’re now nearly in October and things feel the same to me as they always have.

In community pharmacy we have a risk in a) not everybody taking part and b) we rely on referrals into our service so much that if we stop accepting these e.g. Pharmacy First, then how will we build up the momentum again?

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

Opening only core hours is a great idea – if everybody does it. Stopping free deliveries is a good idea – if everybody does it.

There is also the question of, now that we have a new government, should we give them a chance to make changes? Is it too soon for us to take action?

Lots of questions and no 'right' answers. The only thing I am sure of is that we need unity, whatever we do and an urgent uplift in funding, and we needed it at least five years ago.