Pharmacist MP makes maiden parliamentary speech

Labour MP Sadik Al-Hassan has voiced concerns about the “decline of community pharmacies” in his first parliamentary speech.

Sadik Al-Hassan
"I have seen at first hand the decline of community pharmacies"

Labour MP for North Somerset Sadik Al-Hassan yesterday (November 4) drew on his “experience as a pharmacist” in his maiden parliamentary speech.

Al-Hassan was elected as the first Labour MP for the area on July 4, after the Labour-landslide general election.

Read more: Pharmacist defeats GP as voters issue a potent prescription for Labour

As a pharmacist, I campaigned on a platform of rebuilding the NHS,” he told MPs yesterday.

“Having worked in pharmacies across the area over the past two decades, I have seen at first hand the decline of community pharmacies in many towns across the country,” he added.

Read more: IPA warns ‘wrecking ball’ budget will cost sector over £125m

“That is why I was proud to see in the Budget such a strong commitment from my right honourable friend the Chancellor to rebuilding our NHS, with the largest increase in funding—outside the pandemic—since 2010,” he said.

Parliamentary Secretary Emma Reynolds stressed that Al-Hassan’s experience “as a pharmacist will be very valuable to this house”.

Budget bother

Meanwhile, other pharmacy sector leaders have raised concerns about new government’s first budget – which saw a rise to national living wage and increases in employer National Insurance contributions (NICs).

Analysis by The Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA) last week (November 1) revealed that the rises would equate to £12,002 for an average pharmacy per year – totaling more than £125 million for the sector as a whole.

Read more: Minimum wage to rise 6.7% as National Insurance hike confirmed

IPA chief executive Dr Leyla Hannbeck said that the scale of the increase in employer NICs is “deeply worrying”.

Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has said it will do “everything [it] can to push for funding to cover those additional costs for pharmacy owners”, after warning of a “disastrous” risk of further pharmacy closures if the government does not provide “relief” for the sector.

Read more: BMA’s top GP warns budget will ‘break’ pharmacies – but less than GPs

And the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) also said that “it would be an insult if the government was able to offer support to GPs with the National Insurance rise but not hard-working pharmacies, who have faced nearly a decade of cuts in funding and are shutting at record rates”.

Meanwhile, negotiations on the next community pharmacy contractual framework (CPCF) could resume at any point now that the new government’s budget has been announced.

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Kate Bowie

Read more by Kate Bowie

Kate Bowie joined C+D as a digital reporter in August 2023 after graduating from a master’s in journalism at City, University of London. She began covering the primary care beat at the end of 2022, when she carried out several health investigations focused on staffing issues, NHS funding and health inequalities.

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