A community pharmacy was forced to rely on donated personal protective equipment (PPE) from patients who were dentists during the pandemic, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry has heard.

Lee John-Charles, a lawyer and a representative for the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), told the inquiry this week how 'many' pharmacies were required to source their own PPE during the initial months of the crisis because they could not access the NHS supply.

Mr John-Charles, asked those behind the inquiry this week to examine whether the government 'properly and fairly considered the circumstances of all healthcare workers who contributed to the pandemic response'.

And he suggested the inquiry consider 'the resilience of the independent community pharmacy sector in responding to a future pandemic'.

Community pharmacy 'often overlooked and under-recognised'

Mr John-Charles told the Covid inquiry that community pharmacists and their teams were not given comparable treatment to other frontline healthcare workers.

He said the 'most significant and demoralising' example of this was the initial exclusion of pharmacy workers from the Life Assurance Scheme for frontline workers in England, the NPA said.

And he asked the inquiry 'to fully examine the circumstances that gave rise to this remarkable omission'.

Mr John-Charles also said that PPE was not available to community pharmacy teams through the NHS portal until August 2020, 'requiring many pharmacy teams to source and fund their own protective equipment'.

'The supply of PPE was a challenge, and pharmacy teams put themselves at risk to help patients stay well, often working in close proximity to others and reusing PPE repeatedly for days or even weeks,' he said.

And he highlighted the experience of one pharmacy in Streatham, whose owner said: 'We had no access to PPE but we were very fortunate that we have dentists as patients who had stock of their own to give us.'

On behalf of the NPA, Mr John-Charles also highlighted that at the start of the pandemic, many people who worked in community pharmacy were not recognised as key workers, and that Covid-19 testing was not initially available for staff.

Pharmacies were also initially categorised as a ‘retail setting’ as opposed to a ‘healthcare establishment’, which he said meant that 'entire pharmacy teams needed to self-isolate following a single positive case within the pharmacy'.

'This resulted in fewer available staff and increased pressure on remaining pharmacists and pharmacy teams,' Mr John-Charles added.

Resilience for future pandemics

The NPA highlighted that community pharmacy entered the pandemic 'facing financial and workforce crises, due to long-term underinvestment in the network'.

Mr John-Charles told the inquiry this presented 'significant challenges' in the sector's pandemic response, 'and increased the difficulties in providing services to patients and maintaining staffing levels'.

'Underinvestment leading to threats to the network is something that persists to this day,' he added.

'A strong community pharmacy network is an essential element of health care services in UK and the NPA invites the inquiry to consider the role of community pharmacy in pandemic planning and in the overall resilience of the UK’s healthcare system to respond to a future pandemic,' Mr John-Charles said.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) also gave evidence at yesterday's hearing, represented by Deirdre Domingo.

The government recently advised that isolation rooms and PPE would be needed in cases of dealing with suspected mpox.

Jasmine Shah, the NPA's head of advice and support, responded: 'In the event of a significant outbreak of mpox in this country, government and NHS must ensure that pharmacy staff and community pharmacy operations are properly protected, including prompt access to PPE.'

And Jay Badenhorst, director of pharmacy at the Pharmacists' Defence Association, said pharmacists and pharmacy staff need explicit instructions on using PPE appropriately when dealing with potential mpox cases, including what to do if adequate PPE is not readily available.