Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting is 'working through' a funding package to stabilise the community pharmacy sector, he has said.

Speaking to the parliamentary Health and Social Care Select Committee (HSCC) this morning (18 November), Mr Streeting said he recognised that community pharmacy was under 'enormous pressure' and said that he wanted to 'create a more stable foundation from which to build a better future' for the sector.

He added that his 'number one focus at the moment' was on 'stabilising the system' before creating an expanded role for community pharmacy.

Mr Streeting cited real-terms funding cuts and pharmacy closures, saying: 'I absolutely recognise those pressures, and [will be] taking that into account when thinking about [funding] allocations for the year ahead.'

'I definitely see... a bigger role for community pharmacy as part of the shift from hospital to community,' Mr Streeting said.

In the longer term, he noted his ambition would be for community pharmacists in England 'to do even more prescribing, like they do in Wales', to expand Pharmacy First, and 'alleviate pressure on general practice and reduce A&E attendances through better service from pharmacy'.

Streeting confirms pharmacy contract negotiations to begin in the new year

And he confirmed that pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock would be beginning 2024/25 contractual framework negotiations 'shortly, in the new year'.

'I'm working through with Stephen carefully the package that we will need to initially stabilise the system and create a more stable foundation from which to build a better future for pharmacy,' Mr Streeting added.

'Now that we've got the budget set, we'll be consulting with Community Pharmacy England shortly in the new year, and I do want to reassure pharmacists across the country that we are taking into account the enormous pressures they are under when thinking about allocations, so that we can stabilise the system and create the foundations from which to recover,' he told the HSCC.

'Strategic choices' to reduce pressure and ease competition between GP and pharmacy

Mr Streeting also spoke on the 'competition between general practice and pharmacy', adding: 'There is plenty of work to go around. There really is.'

'Whereas I would see more activity in community pharmacy as an opportunity to reduce some pressure on general practice, GPs, see it as a threat to their bottom line,' he said.

Mr Streeting said that was 'rational' against the backdrop of 'an under investment in primary care and real pressures in both general practice and community pharmacy'.

'We need to help them to address that,' he said.

But he also said that 'what has to come first is what is in the interest of the patient' rather than the provider.

'How can we get them the right care, the right place, at the right time, in the most convenient, accessible way, and for the taxpayer, the most affordable and financially efficient way?' Mr Streeting said.

'I think I can help kind of take some of this tension off the boil, by delivering on the shift of from hospital to the community and putting general practice and pharmacy on a more financially sustainable footing,' he added.

But he noted: 'Every single part of health and social care is under enormous pressure.

'At the moment, I'm not going to try and boil the ocean with this budget, because you can't.

'And if you try and do everything for everyone, everywhere, all at once, we will fail.

'But what we will do is make some, I think the right strategic choices now, that provide some stability and solid foundations from which we can help to recover the whole health and care service,' Mr Streeting said.

Announcement on National Insurance rises expected in January

On National Insurance Contribution rises for healthcare providers, Mr Streeting said that he would keep his promise to hospices that he would make an announcement to this sector before Christmas.

'More broadly, I'm mindful of people needing to make decisions around their organisations for the year ahead,' Mr Streeting added.

And he said this could be expected in January 2025 at the latest.