#VotePharmacy – manifesto to support your engagement with political parties and candidates

Ahead of the General Election, Community Pharmacy England, the CCA, the NPA and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society have launched a joint manifesto for community pharmacy. The idea behind the manifesto and accompanying additional resources - which can be found at www.votepharmacy.org - is to empower individuals and teams across the sector to engage with their local candidates and with political parties.

It’s fair to say that community pharmacy is shaping up to be a hot button issue for this general election, and it’s perhaps not surprising given access to primary care is one of the thorniest ongoing issues of recent years.

In recent weeks, we have seen the shadow health secretary spell out Labour’s ‘ambition for pharmacy’, referencing the current financial squeeze and permanent closures. He set out what Labour would plan to do to make proper use of community pharmacy’s experience – highlighting that ‘community pharmacies are crucial to our [Labour’s] mission to make the NHS fit for the future’. These plans include more focus on prescribing and medicines management, as well as – interestingly – clinical trials.

Alongside the launch of Pharmacy First, we also saw Andrea Leadsom, the pharmacy minister, talk about how the Conservatives want to make ‘access to care faster, simpler, fairer’. She also discussed how important community pharmacy is in providing ‘convenient access to high-quality care that will change the lives of patients, particularly those who are more vulnerable’.

So, in all the noise over the coming months, what can you do to make the case for community pharmacy?

Anyone in the community pharmacy sector, including pharmacy owners, is encouraged to make use of the resources available on the Vote Pharmacy website, to help them engage in meaningful conversation with political candidates with the goal of ‘unleashing the potential of community pharmacy’.

Political candidates and parties are encouraged to show their support and sign up to the six-point manifesto, which includes points on filling the funding gap, and committing to long-term sustainable funding, conducting an end-to-end review of the medicines supply chain, and making pharmacies centres for public health, prevention and the reduction of health inequalities.

If everyone across the sector engages with their local candidates, this could be quite a powerful united voice speaking for community pharmacy.

Find out more here: https://votepharmacy.org/