Sunak’s putting a sticking plaster over real problems in the NHS
WHEN Rishi Sunak visited a pharmacy in his hometown of Southampton this week, it was designed to make him seem more rooted in normal life – following bruising election results.
His mum, Usha, ran a Southampton pharmacy – then called “Sunak’s” – from 1995 until 2014, where he helped measure out and deliver medicines as a boy.
The trip home was an attempt to show he hadn’t always been richer than King Charles III – and gave him something to say about the NHS crisis that was “really personal”.
It also aimed to distract from the Government quietly dropping a key Tory election pledge to recruit 6,000 GPs. For which failure, it seems, pharmacists are to carry the can.
“I grew up working for my mum,” he said. “And, so, I saw firsthand how powerful the connection that she had with her patients was.”
The Prime Minister’s new plan is to allow pharmacies to deal with more medical issues, saving “up to” 10 million GP appointments. On the visit to Weston Lane Surgery, pharmacist Peter Baillie was supportive of the new proposals, and declared the Prime Minister “extremely fit”. Well, he is also a Conservative councillor.
BROKEN
Over at the Sunaks’ old pharmacy – now Bassett’s – pharmacist Jithender Ballepu expressed reservations.
“We would need much more funding and definitely more staff to provide any new services,” he said.
The Prime Minister had arrived in Southampton by helicopter – at a £6,000 cost to the taxpayer that echoed the broken 6,000 GPs pledge.
But there were also other signs the Prime Minister’s NHS silver bullet may be a dud.
MPs were told in March that after savage austerity cuts, there is now a shortfall of £1.1billion in funding for independent pharmacies every year – even before new responsibilities.
NHS data shows that, in 2020/2021, community pharmacy numbers fell by 190 compared with the previous year, before falling by a further 114 in 2021/2022.
A further 252 in-store branches are at risk of closure in 2023, according to The Pharmaceutical Journal.
Meanwhile, four in five community pharmacies face staff shortages – with pharmacists working overtime or even without pay to keep their pharmacies open.
No wonder they have been warning about burnout since before the pandemic.
Pharmacist Melissa Dadgar recently shared the struggles of her colleagues on her Instagram, @MelsMedicines.
“It came to a point where a colleague of mine walked out of the pharmacy one day,” she wrote. “Walked out mid-shift. He was having palpitations and an anxiety attack, feeling that the volume of work is unattainable and being made to work his shift completely alone.
“Many pharmacists can relate to this scenario. When I shared his story on Instagram, I received responses from dozens of pharmacists who felt similar.”
She says one pharmacist replied: “I was so overworked
I was being physically sick every day at work and was convinced there was something medically wrong with me.
“Then I started to document and the days I wasn’t at work I wasn’t throwing up. My anxiety
‘‘ Our workforce is tired, and we have taken a 30% cut which affects service
was that bad I had to leave, the pressure in a chain pharmacy is so extreme.”
A recent NHS staff survey found pharmacists were the fifth most burned-out section of the health service. A 2022 survey by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society found 88% of pharmacists are at high risk of burnout, 73% were considering leaving their role or profession, and only 31% rated mental health as good or very good. Melissa says she supports the Prime Minister’s plan in theory. “Pharmacists are more than qualified,” she says. “We have trained for five years, we are not only medicine experts but there are many conditions we are
properly trained to manage.” But she adds: “Many things need to be addressed first like staffing and funding issues.” Otherwise, “it is putting a sticking plaster over what the real problems are in the NHS.”
As for Rishi’s £6,000 helicopter ride, Melissa adds: “When I see my colleagues struggling, some of whom are on minimum wage, of course things like this make my heart sink.”
The Department of Health says it is investing £645million over two years in community pharmacies to support their new “Pharmacy First” approach.
Balraj Rai, 38, spent five years as a community pharmacist and manager, but left to become a locum in the West Midlands when his mental health began to suffer. He also works for The Pharmacists’ Defence Association.
“Pharmacists are really struggling to cope,” he says. “There aren’t enough people and there isn’t much left in the tank – now the Government is promising the public more.
“We’re happy to do more but we need the resources first. When I was working in a community setting, every day we were firefighting. As morale gets low there are more and more people off sick.
“It felt like I was starting to lose myself, my mental health was suffering, the job was changing me. I feel sorry for the poor pharmacists and their teams being asked to deliver more – they’re already struggling.”
Thorrun Govind is a pharmacist in Manchester. “It’s very stressful, very hectic,” she says. “There’s a real risk of burnout already.
We are more than clinically capable but we do need more resources.”
Mark Burdon, 45, from Chester-leStreet, Co Durham, manages six pharmacies in the
North East. Until recently he was a member of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC).
“I had a man who came in with heart failure, he came to us as he couldn’t get to see his GP,” he says.
“We are already acting as a triage service. We do that because the system is struggling, and people want the reassurance and diagnosis that comes from seeing someone face to face.
“Can we do more? Well, we have a workforce that is tired. My colleagues worked every day in the pandemic. There’s an acute shortage of community pharmacists. We have taken a 30% cut which affects the service that can be provided.
“Our national body recently went to the Government with 100 things to improve the way we work, and they’ve done precisely none of those.
“We’re happy to do all the things the Government is suggesting but we need to know the Government has our back – and at the moment it doesn’t feel like it does.”