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By Richard Thomas

In Nicholas Timmins' fascinating piece in the British Medical Journal (BMJ 2015;350:h2954), where he talks to 10 former secretaries of state for health, he quotes Virginia Bottomley on the role of health secretary: €Sometimes you want a window breaker and sometimes you want a glazier.€ By which she meant €“ sometimes things need to be shaken up; other times smoothed over.

So, applying this analogy, what type of pharmacy minister will Alistair Burt be? In truth it is always hard to decipher just how effective the person occupying this junior ministerial ranking within the DH actually is, as the secretary of state calls the shots and the senior civil servants hold the reins. Nevertheless you get the feeling that, after Earl Howe, a vocal supporter of pharmacy, Mr Burt has a tough act to follow.

To help him on his way, we have pulled together some of the most pressing issues vying for attention in his pharmacy in-tray. We know he will be keen to impress his boss in his new role, so how about these for a few quick wins:

1. Remove the cap on MUR numbers
2. Extend the NMS to cover all therapeutic areas
3. Hurry along the introduction of a national common ailments service for England
4. Allocate some precious funding to reinvigorate the healthy living pharmacy programme.

Enough of the rhetoric. Pharmacy has a huge role in improving patient outcomes and maximising value for money in the NHS. So go on Mr Burt €“ smash a few windows.