The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) have urged the government and NHS to value community pharmacy as part of primary care, during a Covid-19 inquiry meeting today.

This follows evidence given last week by former health and social care secretary Matt Hancock, who said that community pharmacists were treated as an ‘afterthought’ by a system that saw the sector as a lower priority during the pandemic.

Lawyer Lee John-Charles spoke on behalf of the NPA during the final session of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry's focus on the impact of pandemic on healthcare system.

He highlighted how pharmacy teams had remained open and worked overtime during the pandemic to ensure that patients could access medicines and healthcare.

And he pointed to evidence of 'particularly high' levels of burnout in the sector, in part due to uncertainty around how they would source personal protective equipment (PPE) or medicines.

Mr John-Charles noted that pharmacy teams were treated differently to other parts of the healthcare system, with the most 'significant and demoralising' sign of this being their initial exclusion from the life assurance scheme for healthcare workers.

He said that evidence from Mr Hancock had 'shed important light' on this issue when the former health secretary had said he had instructed that all pharmacy staff should be included but 'the system of government and the NHS failed to implement his clear direction', Mr John-Charles said.

While claiming to be ‘a big supporter of community pharmacy’, Mr Hancock said in his evidence session last week there is ‘inbuilt into NHS England senior management a lack of enthusiasm to give more to community pharmacists than they absolutely have to’.

Mr Hancock also said that the government provided PPE for 'the core NHS' but not for private businesses like community pharmacies or social care providers.

'There’s a balance to be struck about who the state provides for and also how – given we as the state have limited access – that is then distributed,' he told the inquiry last week.

Today, Mr John-Charles highlighted that 'the supply of PPE was a challenge' for pharmacies, and said that pharmacy teams put themselves at risk by re-using PPE and working in close proximity to others.

Mr John-Charles condemned the government's 'clear failure to properly recognise community pharmacy as an integral part of NHS primary care'.

But he said that sharing the sector's experience at the inquiry had provided 'some solace' to NPA members.

Mr John-Charles also highlighted the sector's lack of resources and funding in order to be resilient to shocks.

And he noted that approximately 1,000 pharmacies have closed in England since the start of the pandemic, making it 'less resilient' to be able to respond to any future pandemic situation unless 'urgent action' is taken.

He reiterated Mr Kaye's points that the community pharmacy sector must survive, must be used, and must be seen as part of primary care, if the UK is to 'respond adequately' in any future healthcare crisis.

He said that seeing pharmacy as part of primary care 'ought to go without saying' but suggested that a 'cultural shift' was needed in government.

He urged government and NHS to 'recast community pharmacy in their minds as a valuable partner in the post-pandemic recovery' and asked the inquiry to recommend adequate investment in the network to secure future resilience.

Meanwhile, speaking on behalf of the RPS, Deirdre Domingo said that the relegation of community pharmacy as 'an afterthought', as suggested by Mr Hancock, was 'a very significant concern that explains much of the unfair treatment of community pharmacy throughout the pandemic'.

'It is the RPS's positoin that frontline staff should have the same support across the whole of primary care,' she added.