MPs in Devon
PSNC are continuing to brief Ministers, MPs and the Opposition and in recent weeks have seen a number of MPs and Peers speaking out in support of community pharmacy. In the coming weeks they will launch the Pharmacy Pressures Survey which will give all contractors and their teams the chance to feed in vital data to support our influencing work and case to Government. As well as this, they recently worked with the other pharmacy bodies to call for a pharmacy workforce plan. They hope to announce some further joint campaigning work shortly.
They would greatly appreciate your help in engaging your local MPs regarding the two events below:
- MP Letter to the Health Secretary
PSNC is facilitating the sending of a letter from MPs and peers to the Health Secretary. The letter raises the parliamentarians ‘deep and growing concern over the unprecedented pressures facing the community pharmacy sector in England, and the risks that this poses to patient care and safety, if left unchecked’. The letter calls for the urgent consideration of three measures:
- Short-term funding to stabilise the community pharmacy sector and enable pharmacies to keep their doors open.
- A commitment to working with the sector to create a fair and fit for purpose future funding model that ensures sustainability and properly funds pharmacies for what they do. This must enable us to build positively the contributions that pharmacies can make.
- A fairly funded Pharmacy First service. With adequate funding, we believe this could alleviate wider pressures in the primary care system and the NHS.
We would be grateful for anything LPCs and contractors can do to encourage your local backbench MP(s) to sign the letter. The deadline is Friday 20th January. Please visit the link below for both copies of the letter as well as an email template to facilitate this.
- APPG for pharmacy manifesto launch.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Pharmacy is running a drop-in event for MPs on Monday 23rd January, from 3-5pm. This event will focus on empowering pharmacies to support more patients and the need for urgent action to tackle the ongoing funding and workforce pressures on the sector.
The more MPs that attend this event to show their support for community pharmacy the stronger our campaign for local pharmacies will be. As such, we would like to ask as many contractors as possible to take two minutes to invite their MP to this event using the email your MP function via the link below.
For all related resources, please visit: Influencing Resources for LPCs: January 2023 – PSNC Website
PSNC Briefing: Community Pharmacy Patient Services Under Critical Pressure
A briefing for MPs that outlines the current situation for community pharmacies, describes the potential risks to patients, and details the sector’s asks to ease the critical pressures. Whilst primarily aimed at MPs, it could also be used to help explain the current situation to other stakeholders.
List of MPs in Devon and their contact details.
- Conservative MP letter to the Health Secretary
- Template MP letter to the Health Secretary
- Template MP Letter to Health Secretary Opposition
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Please contact commsteam@psnc.org.uk for any further help and support.
