Representatives from general practice and primary care have come together at a parliamentary event to shine a light on the pressures faced across the sector.

The House of Commons event held on Thursday (23 January) centred on the launch of a new and exclusive general practice workforce white paper, carried out by our publisher Cogora.

Looking broadly at workforce challenges across general practice, the report – based on surveys and frontline insight – highlights the rapid rise in general practice pharmacists in the last six years and flags concerns that this has had a ‘destabilising effect’ on community pharmacy.

But it also suggests GP practices are now struggling to recruit pharmacists – with a reported shortfall of 32% across England.

Thursday’s event was attended by around 60 guests – including pharmacy, nursing and general practice leaders – as well as 12 MPs.

Delegates heard from report author and editor in chief of our sister title Pulse Jaimie Kaffash, who said: ‘For me, the most fascinating part was speaking to GPs, speaking to nurses, pharmacists, practice managers and commissioners who were all speaking with one voice.

‘These professionals were united in this one thing… and that one thing is funding.’

Cogora’s report highlights the stark impact of core underfunding on the general practice workforce, with GP partners and managers warning that practices struggling financially are unable to offer competitive salaries or pay rises, and also cannot update their premises to hold more staff.

‘Everyone is primary care is struggling’

Speaking to The Pharmacist in Parliament, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA) Dr Leyla Hannbeck said the report ‘shines a light on that fact that everyone in primary care is under a lot of pressure and everyone is struggling’.

‘And everyone is looking to this government to look after primary care better – and this something we have been calling for,’ she said.

‘We can be the solution to a lot of problems.’

She added: ‘The challenges are very similar in all parts of primary care and I think the more time passes, the sicker the nation gets – unless we push the prevention agenda forward.

‘I was pleased to hear the commonalities, but also it’s great to speak with the doctors themselves.’

The parliamentary event also heard a speech by MP for Stroud and working GP, Dr Simon Opher, who said: ‘I think we could safely say that general practice and the whole NHS is in some sort of crisis.’

And Dr Rachel Warrington, a GP from North Bristol who spoke on behalf of the Rebuild General Practice campaign which launched the report with Cogora, also gave a keynote.

‘We always make sure there is a pharmacist’

Meanwhile, also attending the event, director of the Institute of General Practice Management (IGPM) Kay Keane, recognised the move to ‘have more pharmacists’ working in GP practices and the benefits this brings to patients.

At her own GP practice, she noted: ‘In every one of our meetings about a patient, we will always make sure there's a pharmacist in that meeting.’

But as per the Cogora report, practice managers and GP partners warned the recruitment of pharmacists had become difficult because of issues connected to pay, a lack of applicants and because of local ‘competition’ seeing pharmacists move between practices and primary care networks (PCNs).

One practice manager in Humber and North Yorkshire informing the report had said: ‘We’ve been working to invest in our pharmacy team to relieve GPs from prescription admin and medication reviews. But clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are like hen’s teeth.’

Another in Blackpool said they could not afford to match salaries for pharmacists advertised elsewhere.

‘We had an advert out for a pharmacist for six months without a single applicant. Ideally four pharmacists would work for us,’ they said.

The full Cogora General Practice Workforce Report can be downloaded here