Working in a community pharmacy, you are part of something special and your own role is very important and valuable, says NPA chairman Ian Strachan, in his message to community pharmacies

I recently emailed NPA members to encourage them to reflect with pride on just how much good community pharmacy does for patients and communities. What we may see as routine we tend not to celebrate – but in fact the pharmacy ‘day job’ is absolutely central to the health of the nation and is actually rather remarkable.

I want to make that same basic point to pharmacy support staff: working in a community pharmacy, you are part of something special and your own role is very important and valuable. The sector deserves a great deal of praise for the day-to-day work of safely supplying medicines, giving face-toface advice to millions, and being a social and business asset at the heart of communities across the UK.

By drawing together the premises, the team and the business, pharmacies maximise access, continuity of care and sustainable development of services over time. Furthermore, many clinical and public health interventions are built on the back of the medicines supply function – meaning safe, efficient delivery of services in the community, when and where the patient needs them. An extensively distributed community pharmacy network matters because it provides:

• Private investment into the healthcare estate
• A stabilising asset to the community, contributing to social capital
• Convenient local access to NHS services as well as self care
• An unrivalled opportunity for healthimprovement interventions on a massive scale (well over a million people visit pharmacies each day, providing half a billion opportunities each year to engage customers about their health and wellbeing)
• The one part of the health service that bucks the inverse care law – being accessible to people in poor and underdoctored areas as well as wealthier neighbourhoods
• A setting for face-to-face healthcare advice without an appointment
• Interventions that divert people from unnecessary and more expensive care elsewhere in the system, including general practice and secondary care
• A convenient and costeffective route for medicines supply.

At the end of today, see if you can find five minutes to reflect on just how much you and your pharmacy do for patients, communities and the NHS. Just this week alone, how many people are in less pain because of your pharmacy?

How many people have been reassured and treated for common ailments? How many people are in a better position to manage long-term conditions because of medicines advice provided at your pharmacy? How many kids are at school today, who might not have been without your pharmacy’s intervention?

How many unnecessary GP and hospital appointments have been avoided? I urge you to be proud about your role in community pharmacy and confident to speak up about the day-to-day benefits you and your pharmacy deliver.

The pharmacy ‘day job’ is absolutely central to the health of the nation and is actually rather remarkable