Employing pharmacists into general practice and PCNs has contributed to a staffing ‘crisis’ in community pharmacy, PSNC chief executive Janet Morrison has said.

Speaking on a PSNC webinar last night, she said that staffing issues in community pharmacy are an ‘untended consequence’ of a policy that ‘doesn’t make sense’.

She told attendees: ‘It doesn’t make sense to me that when the health service talked about wanting to be more integrated, rather than saying let’s work with a community pharmacy that’s round the corner from every GP practice, to instead recruit clinical pharmacists into GP practices and into PCNs.

‘That doesn't make sense – and it is a crisis that's unfolded. And it's a deliberate course of action that has had this unintended consequence.’

Ms Morrison argued that clinical pharmacists could deliver most value within community pharmacies.

She explained: ‘They're delivering essential dispensing services, a billion scripts a year, they're keeping that pharmacy open in terms of being able to give that informal advice and support to patients who can't go anywhere else anymore. And they are able to deliver services.’

Last week, deputy chief pharmaceutical officer for England Dr Bruce Warner said that he thought more pharmacists would have ‘portfolio careers’ across community pharmacy and general practice, and that an increase in opportunity to offer clinical services would make community pharmacy a more attractive place to work.

On the PSNC webinar, Ms Morrison was also asked about the increased workload pressures on pharmacies, with an increased demand for clinical services, which contractors said did not provide ‘anywhere near enough money’ to replace the dispensing model.

This comes as health secretary Thérèse Coffey set out a vision for pharmacies to take on more clinical services to reduce pressure on GPs.

‘We are very, very aware that you have limited capacity in terms of being able to deliver,’ Ms Morrison said, describing the contractual framework arrangements as ‘a wasted opportunity’.

‘The [PSNC] committee [which is made up of pharmacy contractors] has been saying to us, we just don't know if we can deliver it, or sign up for PQS, or deliver some of the core services that we're expected to – and we don't know if we will be taking up all of the advanced services. And that seems an enormously wasted opportunity.

‘Both the government and NHS England were saying that this contractual framework was a way to really prove the worth of clinical services and the role that community pharmacies can play. And yet the funding has actually made that difficult. And some contractors have said to me, it's like we're being set up to fail, because actually we're not going to be able to prove the worth because we've had such a struggle.’

She added that the Department of Health and NHS England were ‘shooting themselves in the foot in terms of now making it practically impossible for you to have the capacity to deliver.’

Ms Morrison said that PSNC, which agreed the funding arrangements with NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care, had ‘limited room to manoeuvre’ on the deal and would continue passing on pharmacists’ concerns to NHSE and DHSC.

Last week, the Deputy Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England, Dr Bruce Warner said the economic review promised within the CPCF would seek to build a business case for the provision of clinical services within a community pharmacy setting.