It's time to stop viewing pharmacy as a simple transaction and start recognising it as a foundational pillar of modern healthcare. This was one of the central messages of the first roundtable of the UK Medicine Policy series hosted by the Global Policy Network (GPN) on June 25, 2025.

The roundtable brought together colleagues from the NHS, industry, the Commonwealth and international health systems, fostering the cross-sector dialogue essential for transformative change. It was chaired by Yousaf Ahmad, chief pharmacist at Frimley Health and Care ICS. The roundtable was attended by 31 participants, representing a broad mix of organisations across the health and care landscape, including NHS England, ICBs, PCNs, hospital trusts, consultancies and community pharmacy bodies.

The 90-minute roundtable gathered a diverse spectrum of individuals to explore a single, pressing objective: how to fully leverage the transformative role of pharmacy to realise the ambitions of the NHS 10-Year Plan. The session was aimed at moving beyond recognition to action, examining the concrete ways pharmacy can ensure the plan's successful implementation.

The discussion set out a strategic vision centred on three critical transitions for the future of health: from treatment to prevention, from acute to community-based care and from analogue to digital infrastructure.

Pharmacy is uniquely positioned to support all three of these shifts. However, to unlock this full potential, longstanding systemic, cultural and operational barriers must be urgently addressed. The panel stressed that pharmacy must no longer be seen as a peripheral service, but repositioned as a foundational pillar of integrated care.

The roundtable yielded several critical insights necessary to make this new vision a reality. A central theme was the need for profound leadership and culture change, embedding pharmacy leaders at every level, from communities to system boards – as a strategic imperative.

This requires elevating the role of pharmacy professionals themselves. Participants called for empowering them to practise ‘at the top of their licence', with more prescribers actively prescribing. Achieving these demands targeted education both within the profession and among healthcare peers to champion the pharmacist's expanded role.

Crucially, this empowerment must be supported by seamless digital integration. Pharmacy professionals require direct access to patient health records to ensure continuity of care, underpinned by robust data literacy and interoperability. Addressing digital fragmentation through a national platform or full NHS App integration was deemed essential.

Furthermore, a central point of agreement was the urgent need to break down professional silos between community, primary and secondary care. Effective collaboration across these boundaries will optimise patient outcomes and unify local services. As one pharmacy consultant asserted: ‘We have got to stop thinking in silos and start collaborating pretty quickly.'

This requires pharmacy professionals across acute, community and commissioning roles to move beyond segmented responsibilities and actively co-design integrated, patient-centred models of care. Finally, all these efforts must converge on a fundamental shift to patient-centred care, moving from a paternalistic model to one of genuine patient empowerment and shared decision-making.

Despite strong momentum, significant hurdles remain. Participants identified persistent financial and supply chain constraints, geographic inequities in access and critical gaps in data management and literacy as key barriers to progress.

Participants offered practical recommendations to close these gaps. The discussion revealed a collective call to reassess not only how the frontline pharmacy is defined and supported, but also what should be deprioritised to enable long-term success.

Amid the ambitious vision, attendees also sounded a note of caution, particularly regarding the overextension of community pharmacy. A striking example was highlighted by a pharmacy consultant, who stated: ‘those with community pharmacy contracts have got to stop saying yes to everything... a lot of services out there... are not really fit for purpose.' This underscores a critical need to empower community pharmacists with a clear strategic focus and the ability to decline poorly commissioned services, safeguarding both the quality of patient care and the long-term sustainability of their businesses.

This theme of strategic implementation was directly echoed in the critical discussion on readiness for independent prescribing. While participants agreed on its importance as a necessary step for the profession, they voiced serious concerns that the current system is not yet prepared. They pointed out that without a robust, practical infrastructure, including standardised training, protected learning time, sustainable funding and strong leadership. For independent prescribing to truly succeed, the rollout must be backed by the support system needed to develop confident, high-quality prescribers at scale.

A head of clinical services and chief pharmacist reflected: ‘You can prescribe very confidently, until you make your first mistake,' highlighting the emotional weight and professional risk that comes with unsupported clinical responsibility.

In conclusion, the roundtable firmly established that pharmacy is pivotal to delivering the core ambitions of the NHS 10-Year Plan: prevention, community-based care and digital transformation. Yet, its potential remains constrained by entrenched silos, underutilised skills and fragmented infrastructure.

The path forward is clear. Pharmacy must be repositioned as a core pillar of integrated care, equipped with interoperable digital systems, empowered leadership at all governance levels and a workforce enabled to work to its full potential. This requires a fundamental cultural shift to break down professional barriers and align commissioning with frontline realities.

Without this decisive action, pharmacy risks remaining a peripheral service. To meet the demands of the coming decade, the NHS must now prioritise the sustained leadership and targeted investment needed to position pharmacy as the driving force for a more accessible, preventative, and patient-centred future.

To stay updated on this critical work and gain access to more insights, please visit and register at: https://www.globalpolicynetwork.com/pharmacy-policy-series