National Insurance Contributions: Healthcare
Lord Bishop of St Albans Excerpts(1 week ago)
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Baroness Merron (Lab)
What I would say to each sector, including pharmacists, about the services they provide and what is expected in return from any contract is that, as in previous years—I emphasise that it is business as usual in this respect—employer national insurance contributions are dealt with as part of the process. We are very appreciative of the pharmacy sector’s contribution, not least because it will assist with one of the three pillars in moving from hospital to community services. I encourage all pharmacists to work with us to achieve what I believe they and we in government want: a service that is fit for the future.
The Lord Bishop of St Albans
Can the noble Baroness help us understand the huge impact this is having on the hospice movement, which is an extraordinary sector? We get an incredible service from it but, ironically, while we are having a national debate on assisted dying—some of us prefer to call it assisted suicide—this will make it even more difficult to provide this much-valued service. Is there not a case to be made for special support for those independent hospices which have to raise massive amounts of money from charitable sources, so that we are not penalising them?
Baroness Merron (Lab)
As the right reverend Prelate is very aware, most hospices are indeed charitable. They are independent organisations that receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services. As we discussed in a recent debate in your Lordships’ House, the amount of funding that charitable hospices receive varies by integrated care board area, and that will depend in part on population need and the breadth and range of palliative care and end-of-life care provision within the ICB footprint. With NHS funding being provided on a tariff basis, as is usual every year, there is NHS planning guidance, a local government finance settlement and consultations with independent providers. That will happen this year as it has every single year under every previous Government.
Pharmacies: Rural Areas
Lord Bishop of St Albans Excerpts(2 months, 2 weeks ago)
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The Lord Bishop of St Albans
To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to ensure that pharmacies are accessible to those living in rural areas.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Baroness Merron) (Lab)
My Lords, pharmacies are key to our plans to make healthcare fit for the future, as we shift healthcare out of hospitals and into the community. We will expand the role of pharmacies, including the introduction of prescribing services. People’s experiences of accessing pharmacies differ across the country; we will look closely at this. There are dispensing doctors in areas where pharmacies are not viable, and online pharmacies delivering medicines free of charge to patients.
The Lord Bishop of St Albans
I thank the noble Baroness for her response. However, analysis by the Independent Pharmacies Association has identified a £1.2 billion funding gap in this sector, which is leaving, in particular, pharmacies in rural and deprived areas very vulnerable indeed, at the very point when, as she said, we are looking for them to deliver more services. Given that 90% of their income comes from the NHS contracts and that most are unable to fill the funding gap through a retail outlet, what else can His Majesty’s Government do to ensure that we have adequate coverage in rural areas?
Baroness Merron (Lab)
I take on board the point that the right reverend Prelate makes. The analysis to which he refers shines a light on the fact that funding for community pharmacies was either cut or held flat over the last eight years, which amounted to a funding cut in real terms of some 28%. We are seeing the result of that. It is also worth saying that the consultation with Community Pharmacy England on the national funding and contractual framework arrangements for 2024-25 was not concluded by the previous Government, so I can say to your Lordships’ House that we are looking at this as a matter of urgency. We look forward, through my colleague Minister Kinnock, to how community pharmacy can be best set to deliver on the ambitions that I have already outlined.