The Chair of the National Pharmacy Association Olivier Picard has called for a ‘generational shift in priorities’ in the NHS at a major conference of health leaders today.
Speaking to primary care leaders from across the UK at the landmark Community Pharmacy and General Practice conference, Olivier Picard described GPs and pharmacists as the "forgotten foot soldiers of our health system" who were managing "their highest workloads on record".
He said that the government’s 10 year plan ambitions were a "golden opportunity that must be grasped" but could only been done with sustained increases in the percentage of NHS budgets spent on primary care.
Meanwhile, Primary Care Minister Stephen Kinnock MP told delegates at the event in Birmingham, organised between the NPA and Cogora publishing group, that “stronger collaboration between GPs and community pharmacy is not just desirable, it is vital to the future success of the NHS.”
“This is the future direction of the health service, a more accessible one, making better use of technology.”
He promised delegates they would be central to turning the ambitions of the 10 Year Health Plan into a reality for patients - a more accessible, more preventative and more community based health service, enabled by modern technology and delivered by the skilled professionals who know their patients best.
New analysis by the National Pharmacy Association has found that although primary care sees more patients than other parts of the NHS, combined spending on GPs and pharmacies has declined steadily to only 8 per cent of overall NHS spending.
This is a fall of 2.6 per cent in real terms over the last ten years, despite recent uplifts and commitments made in the 10 Year Plan.
The same analysis by NPA, who represent around 6000 independent community pharmacies, found that:
GPs held 103 million more appointments in 2026 compared to the same time in 2021, a 37 per cent increase. Meanwhile pharmacies delivered 160 million more prescriptions compared to 2021, 1.3 billion medicines to patients, a new record.
Record numbers of patients visited their GP and pharmacies last year. In 2025, 161 patients visited their local pharmacy a day in England, up from 137, 1.6 million in total across an average day. This is 20 per cent higher than in 2016, when funding was first cut to community pharmacy. Meanwhile GPs have seen an increase of over 3000 patient visitors per practitioner since 2022.
Pharmacies and GPs have urged the government to increase investment into primary care, who are under record strain.
More funding can allow pharmacies and GPs to invest in additional services, potentially taking pressure out of the wide health care system and get patients better care in the community.
New analysis by the NPA found that pharmacies could potentially reach 20 million patients if England were to adopt the same model of Pharmacy First as Scotland has, saving over 1 million hours of GP time every year.
In England, pharmacists can currently supply prescription only and pharmacy medicines for seven common conditions without a patient having to see their GP, including infected insect bites, shingles and uncomplicated urinary tract infections.
The NPA are calling on the government to turbo charge the scheme to include additional conditions, such as constipation, diarrhoea and certain bacterial skin infections, to bring it into line with the service in Scotland.
Oliver Picard said: “GPs and pharmacists are the forgotten foot soldiers of our health system who are managing our highest workloads on record.
“We have a golden opportunity that must be grasped in the Government’s 10 year plan but to deliver a real shift to community resources are needed on the ground.
“If we are to shift care from hospital into the community, we can’t simply ask the community services to do more with less while secondary care, vital though it is, becomes ever more expensive. We have to execute a generational shift in priorities, properly resourced, that will deliver the better, more convenient care people want.”
