Pharmacy leaders call for reassurance of community pharmacy’s inclusion in NHS workforce plan

Pharmacy leaders have called for reassurance that the workforce plan, expected by April 2023, will cover the entirety of the pharmacy workforce across the
health service, including in community pharmacies.

A joint letter has been signed by representatives from 14 pharmacy organisations which highlights that with continued pressures on services, it is more important
than ever to support the pharmacy workforce so that the staff needed to deliver patient care now and into the future can be recruited, trained and retained.

Mark Koziol, Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) Chairman said: “Our pharmacist members practise across the entire health system and have the potential to do far
more to help patients and improve public health, but they can only do so safely if they are in appropriately staffed workplaces. This is a workforce issue, so it is
important that the Government works with representatives of the pharmacist workforce, and of their employers, to get a suitably agreed plan in place.”

Thorrun Govind, English Pharmacy Board Chair, Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), said: “It will be crucial to use the skills of all our health professions to support
the NHS recovery, reduce health inequalities, manage the growing cost of long-term conditions, and deliver best value from medicines.