Community pharmacy risks missing out on an NHS frontline role due to its slow response to change, warns a new report. Charlotte Rixon finds out more

Pharmacists are becoming increasingly recognised as caregivers, but they are not changing rapidly enough to guarantee a place on the NHS frontline in the future, claims a new report from the Nuffield Trust, commissioned by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS).

Shifting focus

Based on interviews and surveys with local and national healthcare leaders, Now More Than Ever: Why Pharmacy Needs to Act charts the progress of the pharmacy sector one year on since the publication of the ‘Now or Never’ report, which called for pharmacy teams to shift their focus from dispensing and supplying medicines to providing direct patient care.

The report closely follows NHS England’s Five Year Forward View (5YFV), which identified opportunities for pharmacists to better integrate themselves into the NHS and offer more frontline services.

Patchy progress

The Trust argues that while pharmacists are taking on more of the roles that were once filled by doctors and nurses, such as administering vaccinations and managing medicines in care homes, progress is patchy and lacking in scale. In addition, divisions between the different representative bodies make it difficult for pharmacy to make its case to the wider healthcare team, while funding arrangements are still centred on dispensing rather than direct patient care.

“There’s an increasing understanding that pharmacy has a lot to offer an NHS on an urgent hunt for savings, patients looking for easy treatment on the high street for common illnesses, and people needing support to help them manage long-term conditions, but we are still not on course for pharmacists to become a caregiving profession in the way they can and should,” said Judith Smith, Nuffield Trust director of policy.

Fast action

To ensure that pharmacy fulfils its care-giving potential and avoids a ‘bleak future’, the authors urge pharmacists to develop their roles locally, pharmacy leaders to speak with one voice and NHS England to refocus the national community pharmacy contract towards patient care, as well as integrating pharmacy into the new care models that were outlined in the 5YFV.

“There have been some excellent examples of innovative practice among pharmacists since last year, which should be celebrated,” said Dr David Branford, RPS English Pharmacy Board chair. “But this momentum needs to snowball fast.”