Community pharmacists were treated as an ‘afterthought’ by a system that saw the sector as a lower priority during the pandemic, according to former health and social care secretary Matt Hancock.

Speaking before the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, Mr Hancock, who was in office during the pandemic, said it was his view that there is a ‘lack of enthusiasm’ within NHS England senior management to give more to the sector than is absolutely necessary.

In an evidence session this week, Mr Hancock acknowledged there was a delay in community pharmacists having access to the national personal protective equipment (PPE) supply portal until August 2020, which he blamed on the sector’s position in the system’s ‘hierarchy’.

Insisting that he pushed for community pharmacists to be given access, Mr Hancock told the inquiry: ‘In a world of highly constrained PPE availability, we had to be careful to ensure it got to where it was most needed, and there’s a hierarchy of that. But I wanted it to be available to pharmacists.’

He added: ‘Also, you’ve got to remember that pharmacists are private businesses, and outside of the pandemic, of course, they buy their own equipment in the same way that most social care providers are private businesses, and before the pandemic, they buy their own equipment.

‘The government was not the only provider of PPE in this situation. Obviously, for the state-owned hospital system, the core NHS, we were. So, 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.’

Asked to confirm that community pharmacists were lower in the priority for the portal, Mr Hancock answered: ‘That is accurate, yes.’

Another aspect covered during the hearing was the life assurance scheme introduced for pharmacists during the pandemic. The government scheme rolled out on 27 April 2020 to pharmacists in hospitals or GP settings, but initially appeared not to feature the automatic inclusion of community pharmacists.

While the situation was clarified within three days and community pharmacists were included, Mr Hancock was asked to explain the delay.

In reply, he said: I’m going to give you the brutally honest answer to this with some trepidation… the pharmacy contract is managed by NHS England. In order to maximise taxpayer value for money, NHS England is, by tradition, really very tight on pharmacists.’

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

He added: ‘That’s borne of the fact that their main relationship is a contractual negotiation, and that, I think, is probably the reason that they did it this way.’

Earlier this month, Nick Kaye, chair of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), told the inquiry that community pharmacists felt demoralised and demotivated by the way in which other parts of the healthcare system appeared to be prioritised during the pandemic, including initial access to PPE and the Covid life assurance scheme.

When this was highlighted to Mr Hancock and he was told community pharmacists felt they were being treated as ‘an afterthought’, he replied: ‘My sense was also that the system was not looking after community pharmacists enough… and hence I changed it as soon as I could.’

Mr Hancock clarified: ‘They weren’t an afterthought as far as I was concerned, but they evidently were as far as the system was concerned because of how that announcement came out.

‘I said it should be all pharmacies. The formal documentation came out saying it was only the NHS pharmacies. Once I found that out, I would have probably expressed my frustration in Anglo-Saxon terms and said, "I’m going to sort this out".

‘So next time I was in front of the public, I made clear this was for everybody, and I would have to fix it. That sort of problem is meat and drink in Whitehall, and it happens all the time.’

Following Mr Hancock’s comments, Paul Rees, NPA chief executive, described community pharmacies’ treatment as ‘second class citizens’ within the healthcare system as ‘scandalous’.

He said: ‘That attitude was evident during the pandemic and is still playing out today in the form of chronic underfunding.

‘The consequences are clear for all to see in terms of pharmacy closures and poor morale in the sector. Thousands of pharmacy owners have voted to reduce services, unless underfunding is urgently addressed.’

Mr Rees added: ‘Government and NHS England need to fix the immediate financial crisis and recast community pharmacy in their minds, as a valuable partner in fixing long-standing NHS challenges, not as a cost centre.’