CPhO pledges to ensure pharmacy is part of 10-year plan ‘journey’

NHS England will do what it can to ensure pharmacy is part of the dialogue around the 10-year health plan and the move towards a neighbourhood health service, England’s chief pharmaceutical officer (CPhO) has said.

But David Webb stressed that all pharmacists had a ‘part to play with this conversation and to advocate for the role of pharmacy in the care of our patients’.

Mr Webb was speaking at the Pharmacy Show conference on Monday when he urged pharmacy professionals to ‘make an impact in their place’ – whether locally, regionally, or nationally.

He pointed to the recently published 10-year health plan and noted the volume of pharmacy mentions.

‘Pharmacy is central to the future of the NHS’

Mr Webb said pharmacy was ‘absolutely central to everything we’d like to see’ – including the government’s three shifts: from analogue to digital, sickness to prevention, or hospital to community.

‘And everyone in this room and across the sector has worked really hard to get us to a point where the contribution of pharmacy and pharmacy teams is recognised, and we can see your success in the 10-year plan,’ he added.

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The blueprint, published in July, promised to move pharmacies away from being dispensing-focused and towards more clinical services – and to ensure the community pharmacy sector has a ‘vital role’ under the government’s plans for a ‘Neighbourhood Health Service’.

The plan said there will be a focus on increasing the role of pharmacies in the treatment of obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, as well as expanding the sector’s role in vaccinations and screening.

‘In this journey [towards] a 10-year health plan, and a neighbourhood service, we're going to do what we can to make sure pharmacy is part of that dialogue,’ said Mr Webb.

Mr Webb was joined by director of pharmacy, optometry and dentistry for NHS England, Ali Sparke, and together they shone a light on the recent successes of pharmacy and the ‘exciting’ developments to come.

Mr Sparke agreed that the ‘breadth and depth’ of pharmacy mentions within the 10-year plan was ‘a testament to the hard work of pharmacy teams up and down the country who have worked tirelessly over the last five years to put pharmacy on the map [and] to make sure that we are increasingly known as a place to go for a wide range of clinical services’.

‘I think it's the success of that journey and the point at which we're at now, which provides the basis and the platform for future success,’ he added.

Overall, there’s a ‘huge amount of opportunity’ for pharmacy in the 10-Year Plan, he said.

During a different panel at the Pharmacy Show on Sunday, pharmacy leaders suggested they were worried that the 10-year plan was ‘not as innovative’ as many suggest.

Board member of the Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA), Ian Strachan, rated it a five out of 10 and said he believed only 10% of the NHS’ ambitions would be delivered.

Chief executive officer of the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA), Malcom Harrison, agreed. While there were many mentions of community pharmacy in the plan, he also said there was ‘nothing new’. He felt it was a ‘continuation’ of previous plans rather than the radical reform that the government promised.

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‘Important milestone’ on primary care recovery plan

Eighteen months after its launch, all the ‘core functionality’ of the Primary Care Access Recovery Plan was now in place, explained Mr Sparke. This includes updated presentation records, better access to GP records, and referral pathways.

Mr Sparke said this was an ‘important milestone’ in delivering the plan but cautioned that it was ‘only a milestone’ and that there was ‘much further to go’.

The Primary Care Access Recovery Plan, established in 2023, promised to ‘significantly improve the digital infrastructure between general practice and community pharmacy’.

It aimed to streamline referrals, provide additional access to relevant clinical information from the GP record, and share structured updates following a pharmacy consultation back into the GP record.

During his speech, Mr Sparke also stressed the importance of giving newly qualified independent prescribers (IPs) opportunities to use their skills.

‘There are a whole range of opportunities. [For example], we have a lot of services that rely on quite rigid protocols for the supply of drugs, and prescribing can open those doors,’ he said.

The IP Pathfinder programme has been a ‘real success’, he added.

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There are now 197 Community Pharmacy IP Pathfinder sites live and using electronic prescribing. And pharmacy IP numbers are up from 7,820 in 2020 to 19,100 in 2025 – largely due to NHS investment in workforce and training, according to Mr Sparke.

Almost seven million clinic and Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM) checks have been provided since the Blood Pressure Check service was launched, and over seven million Pharmacy First consultations have been conducted, he added.

Speaking about the relationship between pharmacists and GPs, Mr Sparke admitted that ‘we’ve got a lot more work to do on that’ but he said that improving relationships across primary care remained a priority.