Wes Mountain
Professional bodies, such as the Royal College of Pharmacy (RCPharm), have “a really big role” in developing collaborative relationships with other professions, David Webb, chief pharmaceutical officer for England, has said.
Speaking to delegates at the Community Pharmacy and General Practice Conference — held in Birmingham, West Midlands, on 21–22 June 2026 and hosted by the National Pharmacy Association and Cogora — Webb said that local relationships between GPs and pharmacies could help build trust and facilitate co-working, but professional bodies, such as the RCPharm, had a role to play, too.
Also speaking on the panel at the conference were Catriona Sinclair, vice chair of the RCPharm, Victoria Tzortziou Brown, council president at the Royal College of GPs, and Kim Ball, UK professional lead for primary care at the Royal College of Nursing.
Sinclair said: “We’ve got three of the largest professional bodies in the country here, and there is a lot of enabling that can be done by those bodies. I think it is our role to be an enabler within that, in whatever context that can be going forward.”
However, she said that healthcare leaders needed a shared vision for patient care and what they wanted to achieve for patients.
“Ultimately, I’m not convinced we’re actually anywhere near having that shared intentional vision to [take that first] step on the journey, but at some point we need to get that, because we need to make a first step, and the sooner the better,” Sinclair added.
In addition, pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock spoke to delegates at the conference via a video message.
“Pharmacists, general practice and wider primary care colleagues are essential to delivering our ten-year health plan, and we’re already seeing real progress. At its heart, the plan is about three fundamental shifts from analogue to digital, from sickness to prevention and from hospital to community. These are not abstract ambitions, they’re being delivered every day by primary care teams,” Kinnock said.
He noted that community pharmacies delivered around 4.7 million flu vaccinations in 2025/2026.
Kinnock said: “That is care delivered closer to home, preventing illness and reducing pressure elsewhere in the system.
“These are just a few examples of the progress we’re making in rebuilding primary care and fixing the front door to the NHS, and we will go further. In particular, we’re focused on easing pressure on GPs by ensuring pharmacists can make full use of their clinical skills.”
He also highlighted the promise of community pharmacist prescribing set out in the recent ‘Community pharmacy contractual framework’, adding that “we know there is more much more to do”.
“Stronger collaboration between community pharmacy and general practice is not just desirable, it’s vital to the future success of the NHS,” Kinnock said.
“This is the direction of travel: a more accessible, more preventive and more community-based health service, enabled by modern technology and delivered by the skilled professionals who know their patients best.”
