Three companies with a significant interest in community pharmacy were given access to Westminster this week where they met over 30 MPs and urged the government to move ahead with model one of delayed hub and spoke legislation by next summer at the latest.

Representatives from Centred Solutions, HubRx and PillTime spoke to MPs about “the urgent need” to progress the first of two models which the last Conservative government said in May would be enabled through legislation that was originally intended to come into effect on January 1, 2025. So far, no new date for the legislation has been proposed.

Under model one, patients present a prescription to the spoke or pharmacy who then send the relevant information on to the hub to carry out “agreed dispensing actions.” The hub then sends the dispensed medicines back to the spoke who may provide advice about the medicine to the patient before supplying it.

The second model would see a patient present a prescription to the spoke, which would send the relevant information to the hub who would assemble and prepare the medicine and supply it directly to the patient.

In a statement, the companies said if the government can meet their summer 2025 deadline, “more time, if required, can then be taken to review the second model of hub and spoke.”

Centred Solutions said the event “was organised with the support of former pharmacist and Labour MP Sadik Al-Hassan,” who stepped down from his role as superintendent pharmacist at PillTime in the summer to focus on his duties as an MP in North Somerset. 

“(Model one) would allow for dispensing across different legal entities with medicines returned from the hub ready to be dispensed in store to the patient,” the three companies said.

“It will level the playing field for smaller and independent pharmacies, allowing them to use a hub and spoke model of their choice now to create capacity for clinical services.”

Centred Solutions told Independent Community Pharmacist the companies met MPs from Labour, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and the Green Party as well as “a few people from the House of Lords.”

Centred Solutions: Many pharmacies want to urgently move to model one

Centred Solutions CEO Todd Siegel said its customer data showed “moving to hub and spoke takes an average of 80 per cent of original pack repeat dispensing volumes out of pharmacy stores” and freed over four hours of a pharmacist’s time each day “to deliver patient-facing services.”

“Of the 10,000 pharmacies remaining open in England, that’s 1.8 million additional appointments every year on current staffing levels,” he said, insisting “many pharmacies want to urgently move” to model one.

“If model one isn’t put in place soon, there is a real risk that many more pharmacies will have to close their doors as the current way of working is simply not sustainable,” Siegel added.

HubRx chief: This should be an easy decision to make 

HubRx CEO Daniel Lee said the first model “will provide much-needed structural changes in community pharmacy, allowing pharmacies to offer more clinical services including Pharmacy First.”

“This should be an easy decision to make for policy-makers,” he said. “It has cross-pharmacy support, no funding is needed, and the market is ready.

“The benefits will include the creation of much-needed capacity in pharmacy and a more motivated workforce, while also helping to reduce primary care pressure.” Lee claimed independent pharmacies “need this option now.” 

PillTime: Delay is widening gap between large groups and independents

Insisting the legislative delay was putting patients at risk, PillTime CEO Leighton Humphries said: “Hub and spoke would allow pharmacies to outsource compliance aid dispensing effectively and safely, to ensure patients get the support they need.

“The delay in legislation is widening the gap between larger groups and smaller independent pharmacies who need the same access to hub and spoke to survive.”