Shadow Health Secretary meets NPA once again to discuss challenges in pharmacy sector

Wes Streeting acknowledged that “enormous final pressures” and “serious strains” on pharmacies have led to closures

Shadow Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, reiterated that the Labour Party is committed to working in partnership with community pharmacy during a third meeting with the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) on Wednesday, 17 January.

The Labour MP for Ilford North and his team was in Northamptonshire for the Wellingborough parliamentary By-election.

Accompanied by NPA chief executive, Paul Rees, they visited Cherry Pharmacy to discuss with the staff about current challenges in the pharmacy sector.

In a message recorded for NPA members during the visit, he said: “We value you and we are committed to working in partnership to deliver great pharmacy services and get the NHS back on its feet.”

He acknowledged that pharmacies are under “enormous pressures” and “serious strains”, leading to closures.

Paul said the NPA has arranged many pharmacy visits as “it’s really important to give politicians on all sides a ground-level view of community pharmacy.”

“We want them to understand the intense pressures our members are under, but also to offer a vision of how things can be so much better given sustained and substantial investment,” he added.

Paul presented Streeting with a copy of the NPA’s prospectus for the development of pharmacy services, ‘Making Changes Meeting Needs’.

Rishi Hindocha, owner of Cherry Pharmacy, showed the MP around, describing the wide range of services they offer.

Streeting met the NPA in Derbyshire in January last year, and the association had another meeting with Shadow Pharmacy Minister Preet Kaur Gill in Tamworth in the autumn for a follow-up discussion.