NHS success depends on strong pharmacy and GP collaboration, minister says

The future success of the NHS depends on stronger collaboration between pharmacy and general practice, a health minister has said.

Speaking at the inaugural Community Pharmacy & General Practice conference in Birmingham, health minister Stephen Kinnock urged pharmacists and GPs to strengthen their partnerships in order to deliver more care in the community.

In the video address to an audience of primary care staff including GPs and pharmacists he said: ‘Stronger collaboration between community pharmacy and general practice is not just desirable; it's vital to the future success of the NHS.

‘Community pharmacy is embedded in every neighbourhood, and general practice sits at the heart of continuous care alongside the wider primary workforce.

‘You will be central to turning the ambitions of the 10-Year Health Plan into reality for patients. Crucially, the success of this plan depends on you – on your ability to work together, use your skills to the fullest and drive this change forward.’

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The government’s 10-Year Health Plan sets out how the NHS and health system will achieve three ‘fundamental’ shifts: analogue to digital, sickness to prevention, and hospital to community.

A key part of achieving these shifts is through establishing neighbourhood health centres and integrated neighbourhood teams to support patients outside of hospitals, including an increasing role for pharmacy.

The plan states that community pharmacy will be ‘integral’ to the neighbourhood health service by having a greater role in the management of long-term conditions, complex medication regimes, and preventative care.

Mr Kinnock told delegates: ‘This is the direction of travel – a more accessible, more preventative, and more community-based health service, enabled by modern technology and delivered by the skilled professionals who know their patients best.

‘These are not abstract ambitions they are being delivered every day by primary care teams.’

He noted that general practice has delivered 11.5 million more appointments than last year, while community pharmacy has continued to expand its clinical role by delivering around 4.7 million flu vaccinations in 2025/26 – up by around 600,000 since the previous year.

And from autumn, community pharmacies will be able to deliver independent prescribing (IP) services under the new pharmacy contract, helping to ease pressure on GPs, Mr Kinnock added.

Chair of the National Pharmacy Association, Olivier Picard, welcomed the speech and said he hoped it meant further investment in primary care and urged GPs and pharmacists to work together.

‘The COVID 19 inquiry highlighted the fact that community pharmacists and GPs were the most trusted healthcare professional in many communities…this conference is an opportunity for us all to do even better, to think new thoughts, to meet new people, and to do things differently,’ he said.

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Under the new community pharmacy contract for 2026/27 the Pharmacy First scheme will be expanded to include IP, with NHS England expected to create an expert clinical reference group across primary care to consider the new pathways.

Bacterial conjunctivitis, allergic conjunctivitis, oral thrush, skin infections and respiratory tract infections services could be considered for the expanded service.

The Pharmacist understands that government hopes that the investment into new IP services will encourage more ICBs to commission these services locally as well.

But a new survey by the Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA) has revealed that nearly six-in-10 (57.5%) community pharmacies do not plan to provide these new IP services.

Many respondents cited the cost of recruiting or training IPs, uncertainty around how the services will operate in practice, and insufficient funding as reasons not to deliver IP services, the association added.

There have also been widespread concerns about the rising costs facing the sector, including rising drug prices, business rates, national minimum wage and inflationary costs.

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And there are ‘serious’ concerns about how sustainable the sector’s workforce is due to the continued drop in community pharmacist numbers.