Whether as Mayor of Greater Manchester, Brown-era health secretary, or now as a prime minister Andy Burnham's central argument has remained consistent: decision-making and power should be retained locally.
Burnham’s politics is not built around abstract, academic, loquacious discussions of policy reform.
His politics is built around tangible projects and programmes in the community that people can see - high streets thriving, buses arriving on time, and local preventative services that combine health and care to help before a crisis hits.
This is exactly where community pharmacy fits.
Community pharmacy is the most accessible part of the health system. We sit on both urban and rural local high streets, we are known in the neighbourhoods, and trusted in communities that often struggle to access other forms of care.
We provide prevention, minor illness support, medicine advice, vaccinations, emergency contraception, blood pressure checks, smoking cessation support, long-term condition support, and signposting to other services such as addiction and domestic violence support.
In other words, community pharmacy is already the kind of neighbourhood health infrastructure that Burnham’s Manchurian “Live Well” model values.
The opportunity: pharmacy as visible neighbourhood health infrastructure
Greater Manchester’s place-based Live Well approach champions the view that health is shaped not only by primary and secondary care provision, but also by community support and early intervention. This is why it is imperative that community pharmacy is the cornerstone of the government’s shift from hospital to community care. Andy Burnham is likely to turbocharge this initiative.
Burnham has described Manchester as a ‘prevention demonstrator’ for the Government’s 10-Year Plan for England. Manchester is currently promoting its Neighbourhood Moves initiative to help those in areas of greatest need get active in accessible ways and reconnect with local green spaces and trails. Live Well has also supported smoking cessation for pregnancy programmes, initiatives to fight childhood obesity, and a joint NHS bowel cancer screening programme.
For a government interested in prevention and continuing to work with the ambitions laid out in the 10-Year Health Plan for England, community pharmacy offers a ready-made network. It does not need to be invented from scratch, we just need to involved in local health planning from the onset and be provided with the right investment and support. We need to have appropriate representation across Integrated Care Systems and local place-based health commissioning and be viewed as a core pillar of the health system in the upcoming 10-Year Workforce Plan.
The case to Burnham is simple: community pharmacy is not the health system’s ‘nice to have’ benchwarmer; we are a core element.
