The Outlook For Pharmacies In 2025
Viewpoints shared from the first IPA conference of the year
The Independent Pharmacies Association kicked off its year of conferences on 5th February with a packed agenda and plenty of open debate. Key topics included an overview of the pharmacy sector performance and of course discussions around Pharmacy First, now just past its one-year milestones since launch.
Our team at EMT Healthcare were pleased to support the event, networking with pharmacies and other exhibitors to understand the current business landscape for pharmacy and learn about new innovations in the sector.
Pharmacy Funding
CEO Dr Leyla Hannbeck introduced the first session touching on the key subject areas for pharmacies today. Top of that list was funding, a subject that continues to be a hot topic for the sector, especially with the changes to National Insurance contributions which is expected to have a significant impact on pharmacy owners and managing costs.
Dr Hannbeck noted pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock's comments in parliament recognising 'that there has been a 28% real term cuts to community pharmacy funding'
Previously Dr Hannbeck had called for more funding in response to Wes Streeting’s contract offering GP’s for 2025/26 financial year, where the pharmacy sector still had no contract agreed for the current financial year stated a recent article by thepharmacist.co.uk
We are therefore calling on the Government and officials to address this real term cut to community pharmacy funding by giving a 28% uplift to the community pharmacy sector - we are calling on the minister and officials to do this urgently as our sector is struggling to survive.
Together with the ongoing funding challenges and the impact of the treasury budget this spring there was understandably a feeling of unease for 2025 after such a challenging 2024.
The Pharmacy First Debate
The IPA hosted a debate between pharmacies and GPs discussing the Pharmacy First Service which was launched in England and operational on 31st of January 2024 with the purpose;
“…to reduce pressure on overstretched GP services, as outlined in NHS England’s ‘Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care’…”
The panelists, who represented both GPs and Pharmacy Owners, had a very open and honest conversation about the funding structure and the impact for both GPs and pharmacies.
The notion that Pharmacy First was to alleviate 1.5 million appointments a day has not been realised according to GPs and Pharmacy Owners are reportedly seeing a disproportionate amount of people who are coming into their pharmacy seeking advice outside of the scope of Pharmacy First.
Current clinical pathways need reviewing and need some tweaking, but what is needed is greater collaboration between both GPs and Pharmacists in overcoming the challenges, ensure the continuation of service without fragmenting the patient journey and champion for better funding across the healthcare sector.
Positive Outlooks From The Banks
Pharmacy has been living in challenging times, but there was positive news from lenders such as Lloyds Bank who had discussed that compared with other sectors there was more confidence in the pharmacy sector. Pharmacies have shown they are entrepreneurial, taking on services to support balancing the books all through some extraordinarily complex times.
The forecast for pharmacies for 2025 still feels uncertain, but events such as this hosted by the Independent Pharmacies Association are crucial to sharing information and for the IPA to continue to lobby for the sector.
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