Negotiations on the next community pharmacy contractual framework will only resume after the upcoming budget speech on October 30, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) chief executive Janet Morrison told Sigma Pharmaceutical’s UK conference yesterday (October 7).
Morrison said that the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) has “made submissions to the Treasury for the funding shortfalls” for the year and for the 2025/25 spending review, which have not yet been “resolved”.
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“We're waiting for that machinery of government to move forwards,” she said, adding that CPE’s negotiators were “ready to go” once that occurs.
Morrison told the Sigma delegates that the CPE was not “under any illusions” about the immediate financial pressure faced by contractors, as she promised that the negotiator would “secure the stabilisation” of the sector.
“A good early sign”
Morrison spoke encouragingly about CPE’s engagements with the new government and pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock.
She said that the government’s decision to reduce the Pharmacy First thresholds twice was “a good early sign” that Kinnock is listening to the troubles facing the sector.
In a message recorded for the conference Kinnock said that he was “only too aware of the pressures that are faced by the sector”, which he said would play “a vital role” in the government’s shift of attention from secondary to primary care.
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“We need to find a sustainable funding solution that matches our ambitions to reform and expand the services offered by community pharmacies,” he said, adding that the government was treating this as “a matter of urgency”.
Labour MP for Watford Matt Turmaine said that the new government was “determined to deliver and especially so in health and care”.
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Responding to a question from the floor about whether there were plans to allow Pharmacy First bookings from the NHS app, Turmaine said that such a proposal would be “pushing something of an open door”.
He said that the “government's intention” with the NHS app was to introduce further “interoperability”.
