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| UPDATE: 2nd day of action has been announced
After the amazing support for our day of action last month, we want to keep the pressure up during the new government’s first 100 days, taking place on 19th September. |
Taking action on June 20th 2024 – One Day to #SaveOurPharmacies.
The aim of this day was to bring community pharmacies together, start conversations with patients and community to make a powerful call for change and a better, more sustainable future for pharmacies amazing service.
We asked pharmacies to take some visual action to demonstrate their anger at the poor funding for their service and highlight the potential of pharmacy to build a better, healthier future for all in our communities. Pharmacies were able to tailor the action to suit their circumstances, but we encouraged pharmacies to:
Please see below an overview of some of the activities from the day.
| A membership army of local protests and conversations – click here |
Huge numbers of pharmacies – NPA members and beyond – joined the day of action – to turn off their lights between 9-11am and/or black out their windows, wear black or wear a black ribbon. We kept patients and staff safe, but made a powerful point about the crisis facing our network on social media and beyond
If you would like to see photos from all the pharmacies that took place, please click here.
| Getting our message out in media and on social media |
Overall, our day of action was mentioned 248 times in national, regional and trade media yesterday alone.
National coverage
Our day of action was reported by national print and broadcast media. Channel Five News produced a report on our day for their evening programme and GB News spoke to our Chief Exec Paul Rees live from a pharmacy in central London. We also received coverage from the BBC News website, Mirror, Daily Mail, ITV News Online, Independent and the Evening Standard
Regional coverage
We had extensive coverage across many regional titles. NPA Vice-Chair Olivier Picard kicked off the day speaking to BBC Radio Oxford. Thanks to help from CPNI, our day was the lead news item on BBC Radio Ulster and NPA member Liam Bradley spoke to his local radio on BBC Radio Foyle. Individual member days of protest were covered in many places, including in the Wirral, Burnham on Sea, Windsor and Sunderland.
Trade press
We engaged our trade magazines with a number of different stories to cover on the day as well as interview opportunities with our NPA Chief Executive, Paul Rees and members taking part.
The Pharmacist did a sit down interview with our Chief Executive about how we felt the day was going. Chemist and Druggist reported our petition topping out over 100,000 signatures as well as a live blog of the day. Pharmacy Business magazine spoke to one of our members in Scotland, Whithorn Pharmacy, about why they were choosing to take part in the day and covered Deputy Lib Dem Leader Daisy Cooper‘s visit to the NPA offices on the day itself. Independent Community Pharmacist covered the NPA’s analysis that around two thirds of pharmacies had slashed their opening hours due to funding pressures.
Social media
Pharmacies swamped social media with the #saveourpharmacies hashtag, reaching thousands of people during the course of the day on social media, while sector WhatsApp groups were dominated with photographs of campaign action spanning England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
| The NPA battlebus grand tour of our political leaders |
The NPA’s specially-commissioned campaign van toured the South East of England to punch home our messages for the day of action and to visit member pharmacies and the constituencies of key parliamentary figures.
| Paul Rees, NPA CEO and Nick Kaye, NPA Chair hit the campaign trail |
Our NPA Chief Executive Paul Rees, and NPA Chairman Nick Kaye criss-crossed the country, meeting members, appearing on the TV and taking the funding fighting to the streets.
| Taking the pharmacy battle direct to our political leaders |
| Huge support from our patients and communities |
Many pharmacies used this opportunity to get sign-ups for the #saveourpharmacies petition – 100,000 signatures and growing fast every day.
All members are encouraged to either scan and email your petition sheets to saveourpharmacies@npa.co.uk or post them to Mallinson House, 38-42 St Peters Street, St. Albans, Hertfordshire, AL1 3NP by Thursday 18 July so we have time to update the numbers. We still encourage you to keep gathering petition sign-ups up until end of August 2024.
| Campaign elements put together to support pharmacies |
| Social media toolkit |
Take a look at our day of action social media posts below for you to share across your social channels – Click here
| Resources |
Briefing for Election candidates
Petition
Guidelines
England
Scotland
Wales
Northern Ireland
| Media coverage |
We have secured media coverage around this campaign across a number of national, regional and trade media outlets.
See below for more details:
Nationals:
Regionals:
Trades:
Telegraph print coverage
#SaveOurPharmacies posters, sticker sheets, petition sheets and more information are on our main save our pharmacies page
Watch our campaign briefing webinar here.
Follow us on our social channels, and don’t forget to tag us so you can be featured. We’ll be sharing throughout the week, so it’s a perfect opportunity to tune into our channels and discover our campaign work!
X: https://twitter.com/NPA1921
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nationalpharmacyassociation/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/npa_1921/