Mandating Services for the Future of Pharmacy

Last week the Government published its 2023 mandate to NHS England. So what does the mandate mean for community pharmacy? Centred Solutions Head of Marketing, Shelley Dyer, takes a closer look.

Every year for the last decade the Government has published a mandate to NHS England to make certain asks of the health system, often with lists of targets and tests that need to be met. But this year’s mandate looks somewhat different. It’s short, clear and concise, setting out three key priorities for NHS England to deliver on:

• cutting waiting lists,
• supporting the workforce,
• the use of data and technology.

In a keynote speech to NHS Confed Expo last week, Health Secretary, Steve Barclay MP, explained that the mandate gives clear direction but backs it up with the freedom and flexibility to deliver it. His grand plan is to trust the new Integrated Care Systems with greater freedom brought about by devolved decision making and greater transparency. The hope is this will result in a place-based approach with decisions taken closer to patient needs.

For community pharmacy this is a step in the right direction. The mandate makes it clear that community pharmacy will play a key role in delivering the significant challenge that lies ahead to improve patient access to primary care. There is a real commitment to delivering this through a well-trained and well supported workforce who adopt the latest innovations and technologies, and invest in the vital digital infrastructure needed to deliver health services.

The adoption of technology across the whole healthcare spectrum is a golden thread running through the mandate. It says it is crucial that the NHS makes progress in adopting the latest innovation and technology to digitally transform the NHS and help to ensure its long-term sustainability. It explains that the health and care system must utilise the power of technology and the skills, leadership and culture that underpins it, to drive a new era of digital transformation. This, it says, will allow the health and care system to thrive long into the future, delivering vast benefits for patients. The Health Secretary reinforced this commitment to innovation speaking at NHS Confed Expo. He explained that technology is a way to tackle many frustrations faced by staff working in the health sector. He also added it was time to move away from an approach that saw technology as the first thing to go when budgets are tight.

He's right of course. Often technology can be seen as a nice to have when there is no money available. But actually, this is when you need technology most. Technology improves outcomes and helps staff to do their job more effectively. The mandate itself points out that digitally mature NHS Trusts operate with 10% improved efficiency compared with their digitally immature peers. And at Centred Solutions we’ve seen the community pharmacies who have embraced original pack dispensing automation early on are now reaping the rewards with increased service, and therefore revenue, growth and have been less impacted by the wider staffing shortages in pharmacy. With community pharmacy due to play a major role in primary care recovery, it’s vital the sector gets its house in order now by investing in technology so they are able to hit the ground running when the imminent pharmacy first scheme is launched.

The mandate reinforces commitment to this scheme stating: “NHS England should develop and deliver the service specifications and patient group directions for the common condition service in community pharmacy and the necessary underpinning IT improvements.” It goes on to say that NHS England should also support the Department of Health and Social Care in “negotiating funding arrangements with the sector” and “drive take up and delivery of the common conditions service and expansion of blood pressure and contraception services by community pharmacy”.

The mandate also gives a nod to the way repeat prescriptions will be ordered going forward. There is a clear vision to transform the use of the NHS App so it becomes a “digital front door” to the health service including increasing its use for booking and managing appointments, ordering repeat prescriptions and accessing patient records. The aim is for 75% of all adults in England to be registered on the NHS App by March next year.

Finally the mandate outlines that NHS England will need to continue to deliver the wider work of the NHS long term plan on top of the three new priorities. This includes preventing ill health and supporting Integrated Care Systems to tackle inequalities in access to healthcare. This is another area that community pharmacy will be able to play a key role by moving to a more service-based model delivering interventions such as smoking cessation and weight management. However, to be able to realise this new service-based model, community pharmacy needs to look to technology now to automate the dispensing workload and free themselves from the dispensing desk to create much needed capacity.