NHSE national director for primary care Dr Amanda Doyle this week (March 18) confirmed that NHSE has “agreed with Community Pharmacy England (CPE) not to comment publicly on anything related to the uplift or funding arrangements for the sector given [the bodies] remain in consultation”.
The news comes after Health and Social Care Committee (HSCC) chair Layla Moran last month wrote to NHSE urging the commissioner for an update on the pharmacy economic review, after sector leaders had demanded that it be published “immediately” .
Read more: HSCC give NHSE 2-week deadline for economic analysis update
Responding to Moran, Doyle said that “NHSE has committed to publish the economic analysis report in full”.
But she said that it “will publish the economic analysis report with the outcome of the [pharmacy contract] consultation”.
“Shared confidentially”
“The final report has been shared confidentially with CPE and other stakeholders involved in the analysis,” Doyle said.
“CPE has been part of the process of development for the economic analysis and has had access to all outputs since the work commenced,” she revealed.
“The government has also been fully briefed, including on the headlines from the interim report received in late 2024,” she added.
Read more: ‘Collective voice’: IPA and NPA pen joint letter over economic review
Last week (March 11), pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock said that “the interim report has been shared with ministers and has informed the offer that CPE is currently being consulted on”.
“The final project is nearing completion and will be shared in full with ministers before being published,” he added.
“Evidence buried”
The long-awaited review, which officials said would “inform any future decision on the funding of community pharmacies”, was first announced in 2022 but had still not begun in February last year.
Last month, both the Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA) and National Pharmacy Association (NPA) called for the government to urgently publish the review during contract negotiations.
Responding to “fears this won’t be published until after the government finishes current consultations on pharmacy funding”, the NPA argued at the time that the public “needs to understand the fragile nature of the pharmacy network before any new deal can be agreed’.
Read more: CPE mulling over ‘initial’ funding offer - as it bumps up LPC levy 2%
It added that “it would be a scandal to keep that evidence buried secret and leave MPs, pharmacies and the public in the dark” about the “perilous financial state” of the sector.
The IPA also called for contract discussions to be “made transparent”, demanding that “the sector has an opportunity to understand the process based on which the officials have arrived at the deal offered and have the opportunity to feed back”.
Read more: Pharmacist MPs and minister vote down NICs hike exemption
Earlier this month, the two pharmacy bodies joined forces to pen a joint letter again urging NHSE to “release immediately” the review, stressing that their “collective voice must be heard”.
The letter – which the bodies last week (March 11) announced had garnered signatures from the owners of 3,034 pharmacies in England - said that “there is no justification for delaying publication of this report, whether or not consultations on funding are underway”.
