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The progress on government commitments to community pharmacy ‘requires improvement’ across a number of areas, according to an independent Expert Panel from the Health and Social Care Committee.
The panel looked at five policy areas, which were community pharmacy, integrated care, hospital pharmacy, workforce education and training, and extended services.
It found that although demand for community pharmacy services has increased, available funding was not sufficient so they were struggling to deliver services within the existing funding model, or even to remain open.
Steve Brine MP, Chair of the Health and Social Committee, said: “This report from our Expert Panel makes for sobering reading. The Committee is holding a separate inquiry considering what the future of pharmacy could look like because there’s real potential for innovative work and to truly see community pharmacy at least as part of the primary care model.
“Success will rest on resolving challenges around funding, the digital infrastructure, and crucially, workforce skills and training. The level of detail about progress by the Government so far will feed into our work and, ultimately, help shape the recommendations we make to Ministers.”
Only two of nine commitments to community pharmacy were rated ‘good’
One commitment that required improvement covered a scheme intended to protect access to local physical NHS pharmaceutical services in areas where there were fewer pharmacies.
In addition, a commitment by government to eliminate paper prescribing in hospitals and introduce digital or e-prescribing across the entire NHS by 2024 was rated ‘inadequate’ overall. Experts found that poor ‘digital maturity’ was partly responsible and reported that even prioritised funding for IT systems was insufficient.
On workforce education and training, the report ranked a government commitment to roll out a three-year education and training programme for primary care and community pharmacy professionals as requiring improvement, with providers unable to afford to pay to backfill staff sent on courses.
Another finding was that a commitment to make legislative changes to improve the skill mix in pharmacies and enable the clinical integration of pharmacists has not been delivered and was rated ‘inadequate’ overall.
Out of nine commitments separately evaluated over five areas, two were rated as ‘good’, five as ‘requires improvement’ and two were ‘inadequate’.
Professor Dame Jane Dacre, Chair of the Expert Panel, said that pharmacy plays a key role in the delivery of care so it was disappointing that progress overall to deliver on the government’s commitments was rated as ‘requires improvement’.
She added: “We’ve found community pharmacies to be at particular risk with the existing funding model unable to prevent some high street pharmacies facing closure and others struggling to provide services in the face of rising demand and increasing costs.
“A government pledge to move entirely to digital or e-prescribing across the NHS by the end of 2024 was overly ambitious. We found inadequate progress in the delivery of this commitment due to the lack of joined-up digital infrastructure in the NHS and Social Care.
“On workforce, the government has made no headway with a commitment to better integrate pharmacists within a clinical team with progress rated again as inadequate. When it comes to training and education, we looked at a commitment to roll out a new three-year education and training programme for community and primary care professionals, unfortunately there was insufficient funding available to send staff on courses.”