This investment will be supplemented by a £500 million national ‘turnaround’ package to support GP practices, and additional funds from local CCGs. The plan also contains specific, practical and funded steps to strengthen workforce, drive efficiencies in workload, modernise infrastructure and technology, and redesign the way modern primary care is offered to patients.
The plan acknowledges that pharmacists remain one of the most underutilised professional resources in the system and they must bring their considerable skills in to play more fully. Therefore, the current investment of £31 million to pilot 470 clinical pharmacists in over 700 practices will be supplemented by new central investment of £112 million to extend the programme by a pharmacist per 30,000 population for all practices not in the initial pilot – leading to a further 1500 pharmacists in general practice by 2020. A Pharmacy Integration Fund will; be introduced worth £20 million in 2016/17 and rising by a further £20 million each year.
The RPS England Board Chair said: “The creation of around 2000 new jobs for pharmacists, in an era of austerity where value must be proven rather than assumed, shows a strong commitment to the profession from the very top of NHS England. GPs want to work alongside pharmacists, for pharmacists to be part of the team, alongside nurses, mental health workers and others. I know that many pharmacists, from all sectors, want this too - and now there is an opportunity for many more pharmacists to consider this option alongside more established roles.”