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Community Pharmacy England (CPE) chief executive Janet Morrison told the Sigma Pharmaceuticals conference on Sunday that she and her colleagues have been subjected to abuse and threatened with legal action but do “an amazing job” despite “many pressures trying to undermine or prevent us from doing so”.

Morrison (pictured) defended CPE’s record during a heartfelt assessment of its performance and the various distractions its committee has had to face, which have included calls for committee members’ votes to be made public, discontent over the make-up of its committee, criticism of the 2025-26 funding deal and anger over a measure agreed as part of that preventing distance-selling pharmacies from providing enhanced NHS services onsite.

In April, the Independent Pharmacy Contractors Network (IPCN) submitted a complaint to the Competition and Markets Authority over what the IPCN said was an “anti-competitive agreement” on distance-selling pharmacies.

In the weeks leading up to the announcement of the 2025-26 funding deal, the IPCN warned CPE and its individual committee members could face legal action if they agreed to “an underfunded settlement”.

Challenging the pharmacy sector to work together and put aside their differences during the conference at the Heathrow Marriott Hotel before trade body leaders, pharmacists and the Labour MP Matt Turmaine, Morrison said: “Community Pharmacy England has a committee made up of representatives across the whole sector and we’re a large committee.

“We work incredibly productively together to come to difficult answers, wrestle with really technical problems and come to a view. Every person on that committee is charged with not representing their sector or their self-interest but the interest of the whole sector and all contractors.

“Contrary to what people think, we work incredibly productively. When we go through negotiations, we sit at tables mixed up, we don’t sit in groups, and we tackle really big questions and work together really productively.”

Later, during a panel discussion, Morrison recounted “the amount of abuse” she personally experienced as well as her committee and executive team despite securing “the best” funding deal “since 2014”.

“My committee, myself and my team were threatened with legal action. We had people taking industrial action and it is a complete distraction. It is undermining our professional reputation and it undermine every message we make,” she said.

“So, I’m really delighted if the sector bodies, rather than playing off each other, played in support and make us the much better and stronger team. And I really appreciate the pledge from NPA to do that and I would love to see that from the other bodies.

“I do wonder that when people are arguing about seats at a table, I want to say ‘what for?’ We are always open to your policy ideas, expertise and input.”

A difficult, cultural thing going on between DH and NHS England

Morrison said talks on 2026-27 pharmacy funding were unlikely to start before December and warned “there is quite a difficult, cultural (thing) going on between the Department of Health and NHS England and that makes it harder to do business with them at the moment but we hope that will improve”.

She also delivered a note of caution about neighbourhood health centres which are integral to Labour’s 10-year NHS plan. The structure and form neighbourhood health centres will take have so far been sketchily outlined by Labour. Forty-two sites have started rolling out their neighbourhood health programmes but Morrison cautioned the centres will all have “very different models”.

“How we can understand how community pharmacy is enabled and has the capacity to engage in those is going to be really challenging across the country,” she said.

“There are very different models. There’s some areas where hospitals seem to be coming in to develop neighbourhood and community services, through to GP seeing it as an extension of ARRS (additional roles reimbursement scheme) and that’s just their team and they’ve got pharmacists working in it already.”

Morrison urged the Government to work with CPE on a community pharmacy roadmap. “Where are we going? There are all these aspirations but how do we build that into a sustainable future?” she said.

“However, all the primary care bodies across the board have been warned there is a gloomy outlook for funding. The minister has made it clear on several occasions there won’t be another 19 per cent spend on community pharmacy.”