The Pharmacy Show 2026: Plenty of Energy, But Where Does Pharmacy Go Next?
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I spent some time at the Pharmacy Show in Birmingham this week and, as ever, it was a useful opportunity to step away from the day-to-day and spend time talking to people from across community pharmacy.
There is something valuable about having so much of the sector in one place. Owners, pharmacists, teams, representative bodies, suppliers, technology companies and many others who have an interest in the future of pharmacy. The scale of the event itself is a reminder of just how broad and diverse our sector has become. The official programme reflected many of the big questions facing us: the sustainability of community pharmacy, expansion of clinical practice, workforce, integration with the wider health service and the relationship between funding and future service development. But for me, some of the most useful parts of events like this happen away from the formal programme. They are the conversations in corridors, over coffee, on exhibition stands and between sessions.
And what struck me is that, despite the different contractual and policy environments across the UK, many of the conversations are remarkably similar.
How do we create a sustainable community pharmacy network?
How do we make better use of pharmacists' clinical skills?
How do we move from talking about transformation to actually delivering it?
And, importantly, how do we make sure the economics of running a pharmacy allow all of that to happen?
Scotland has something worth building on
Attending a UK-wide event also makes me reflect on the journey we have been on in Scotland. We should be confident about what community pharmacy already contributes here. But we shouldn't become complacent. The next stage needs to be about making community pharmacy an even more integral part of primary care, rather than thinking of pharmacy as somewhere that additional services can simply be bolted on. For me, that means building around what makes community pharmacy different: accessibility, trusted relationships with patients, a highly skilled workforce, our medicines expertise and a network embedded within communities across Scotland.
Prescribing is an important part of that future.
As more pharmacists qualify as independent prescribers, the question increasingly isn't whether community pharmacy should prescribe. It is how we design services and systems that allow prescribing to be used properly, safely and at scale. That presents a significant opportunity for Scotland.
Innovation needs a sustainable foundation
There was no shortage of innovation on display in Birmingham. Technology continues to change pharmacy businesses, from automation and digital systems through to the way pharmacies communicate with patients and organise their workload. That is exciting, but it also reinforces something I have become increasingly convinced about.
You cannot separate transformation from sustainability.
We can rightly ask community pharmacy to play a bigger role in prevention, prescribing, access to care and supporting people to manage their medicines. But the network needs the capacity, workforce and financial confidence to invest in that future. That is why the conversations CPS continues to have about sustainable funding aren't separate from the transformation agenda. They are fundamental to it. A pharmacy constantly managing financial and operational pressure has much less capacity to invest in people, premises, technology and new clinical models. If we want transformation, we have to create the conditions that allow it to happen.
The value of looking beyond Scotland
Another reason I value the Pharmacy Show is the opportunity to hear what colleagues elsewhere are doing. Scotland does not need to copy England, Wales, Northern Ireland or indeed pharmacy systems elsewhere in the world. Our NHS structures, contractual arrangements and policy environment are different. But we should always be curious. What is working elsewhere? What hasn't worked? What could we adapt? And equally, what can others learn from the Scottish experience?
One of the programme discussions looked internationally at different models of pharmacy, with representatives from Ireland, Australia and the UK. That kind of comparison is increasingly important. Many health systems are grappling with exactly the same challenges: workforce pressures, growing demand, constrained resources and the need to move more care closer to people's homes.
Community pharmacy has a compelling answer to many of those challenges.
Coming back to Scotland
I came away from Birmingham positive about the potential of the sector, but conscious that potential on its own isn't enough. There is clearly ambition across community pharmacy. There is innovation. There is clinical capability. And there is an appetite to do more. Our job now is to turn those ingredients into something sustainable.
For CPS, that means continuing to make the case for a community pharmacy network that isn't viewed simply as a supplier of medicines or an alternative when other parts of the NHS are under pressure. It means positioning pharmacy as a core part of how Scotland redesigns primary care, improves access and focuses more strongly on prevention. And it means being honest that ambition needs to be matched by investment and a sustainable economic model. Perhaps that was my biggest takeaway from Birmingham.
The question is no longer whether community pharmacy can do more. We know it can. The real question is whether we are prepared to create the conditions that allow it to do so.
That feels like a conversation worth continuing beyond the show.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
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CPS wants community pharmacy to be recognised as a core part of primary care in Scotland, not just somewhere to collect prescriptions or a fallback when other NHS services are stretched. That means building on what makes pharmacy different: easy access, trusted relationships with patients, medicines expertise, a highly skilled workforce and a network rooted in communities across the country.
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With more pharmacists qualifying as independent prescribers, the question is no longer whether community pharmacy should prescribe, but how services and systems are designed so prescribing can be used properly, safely and at scale. CPS sees this as a significant opportunity for Scotland to improve access to care and strengthen prevention.
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Because the two can’t be separated. Pharmacies can only take on a bigger role in prescribing, prevention and access to care if they have the capacity, workforce and financial confidence to invest in people, premises, technology and new clinical models. A pharmacy constantly managing financial and operational pressure has far less room to do that. Ambition needs to be matched by investment and a sustainable economic model.
