By Alexander Humphries*.

When the funding cuts were first announced, I’m sure that the Government and its civil servants were probably counting on the sector to grimly accept the situation and move on. Thank goodness our representatives have stood firm, even after the cuts have been implemented.

Having followed last month’s events in the High Court from afar, and been frankly disgusted by the totally derogatory comments from the Government chief lawyer about pharmacies selling sandwiches and the like, I can only think that this misguided view of our world might have flowed from the same pool of apparent antagonism that was on display at the recent chief pharmaceutical officer’s conference – from, erm, the chief pharmaceutical officer.

Stubborn refusal

You would expect, wouldn’t you, that the most senior pharmacist in Whitehall would at least be fair to community pharmacy. No such luck. It wasn’t so much what Keith Ridge said, as what he didn’t say. Time and time again, he talked about clinical pharmacists in different roles but stubbornly refused to admit that community pharmacists are themselves clinical pharmacists – a point which I know has been made to him over and over again.

You may think ‘what is the point of getting annoyed with things like this’, or ‘how do we hold an unelected bureaucrat to account?’. But unless we challenge Dr Ridge, we are complicit in enabling him to continue to propagate his rather (shall we say) partial view of community pharmacy.

From my perspective, it looks as though he has thrown community pharmacy under the bus in exchange for funding for a personal pet project (GP practice pharmacists) and some play money (the Pharmacy Integration Fund).

To hear that it is unlikely that community pharmacists will be trained as independent prescribers unless they are attached to a GP practice reaffirmed that there is an ingrained prejudice against the knowledge, skills and experience of a huge section of the profession. And how can anyone justifiably use the number of ‘Excellent’ pharmacy ratings given by the GPhC to suggest a widespread quality problem in the sector?

Emboldened?

To quote a colleague who attended the conference, the CPhO seemed almost “dismissive, snide and emboldened” in his manner towards community pharmacy. And that is my real concern. The fact that Government has ploughed on in the direction Dr Ridge clearly seems to want (GP practice pharmacists, hub and spoke, etc.) will only make him more determined to see these policies through and less inclined to listen to those who challenge them.

The Government badly needs to reset its relationship with community pharmacy, whatever the outcome of the judicial reviews, the results of which may well be known by the time you read this.

However, I don’t see how we can begin to engage positively with both the Treasury and Department of Health/NHS England and start to win over hearts and minds concerning policy unless or until we have a different chief pharmacist in post – someone like the excellent Rose Marie Parr from Scotland, who has promised that all pharmacists will be independent prescribers in future.

This is true vision – not something that would come from anyone who has spent any length of time in NHS England’s pharmacy team, since they all seem to share the same view of community pharmacy as sandwich and shampoo pedalling charlatans.

Contemptuous

It is obvious to me where Keith Ridge stands on community pharmacy, obvious from the tone and content of just about every speech he has given in recent years.

When I look at the team of people I work with every day, I can only feel despair that their human, committed and utterly professional approach to looking after patients can be distilled by the person who is supposed to be fighting their corner at the highest level.

One thing is for sure: if he is openly contemptuous of us in public, what must he be like behind closed doors when dealing with the likes of Hammond, Mowat, Simon Stevens and company?

^{* Pen name of a practising community pharmacist. Alexander Humphries’ views are not necessarily those of Pharmacy Magazine. Do you think the CPhO does enough to support and champion community pharmacy?  Email pm@1530.com}

There is a prejudice against a huge section of the profession