{"id":3480,"date":"2026-06-25T13:32:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T12:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/?p=3480"},"modified":"2026-07-02T11:42:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T10:42:30","slug":"dauk-calls-for-greater-primary-care-investment-at-national-pharmacy-and-gp-conferences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/dauk-calls-for-greater-primary-care-investment-at-national-pharmacy-and-gp-conferences\/","title":{"rendered":"DAUK calls for greater primary care investment at national pharmacy and GP conferences"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DAUK GP co-lead Dr Steve Taylor has represented the organisation at two major national conferences and helped strengthen relationships between general practice and community pharmacy leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at events organised by the Independent Pharmacies Association and publisher Cogora, Dr Taylor highlighted the need for greater collaboration across primary care professions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He used the platforms to argue for a more joined-up approach to funding and service delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first event, hosted by the Independent Pharmacies Association at The Belfry, brought together pharmacy leaders from across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Primary care funding<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dr Taylor was invited to speak on the GP contract and the wider challenges facing primary care funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His presentation focused on the long-term decline in investment across primary care, including general practice and community pharmacy, and the need for the professions to work together to secure a greater share of NHS funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Taylor said: “Primary care includes GPs, pharmacists, dentists and optometrists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRather than competing with one another, we need to be making a collective case for greater investment in the services that provide the vast majority of patient contacts in the NHS.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Networking<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dr Taylor said the session was well received, with many delegates approaching him afterwards to discuss the issues raised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event also provided valuable networking opportunities, including discussions with senior pharmacy leaders and representatives from across the healthcare sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second event was the Community Pharmacy and General Practice Conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conference was organised by Cogora, the publisher of Pulse and The Pharmacist, and the National Pharmacy Association<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It brought together community pharmacy and general practice professionals at the National Conference Centre near the NEC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Improving vaccine uptake<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dr Taylor delivered a presentation on immunisation programmes and the shared responsibilities of GPs and pharmacists in improving vaccine uptake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A central theme of his talk was the need to move beyond competition and focus on unvaccinated people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: “We shouldn’t be squabbling over the 70 per cent of people who are already willing to be vaccinated, we should be developing a joint strategy to reach the 30 per cent who aren’t.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Taylor\u2019s comments were included in a blog by Pulse editor Sofia Lind<\/a> on how the current funding arrangements can unintentionally encourage competition between GPs and pharmacists, when greater cooperation would serve patients better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside his presentation, Dr Taylor co-hosted the conference’s Hall of Heroes session with healthcare leader Tara Humphrey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collaboration and innovation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This session celebrated examples of successful collaboration and innovation in community pharmacy. He also participated in the conference’s closing plenary discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Taylor said the conferences provided an opportunity to build stronger relationships between general practice and pharmacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cPrimary care is vital in preventing illness and hospital admissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe right drift of funding has seen secondary care funding increased while primary care has seen cuts over the past decades, particularly the past 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten Year Plan<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany health plans have come and gone promising a shift to community care. All have failed and the Ten Year Plan seems to be the latest iteration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInvesting in existing community neighbourhood centres, GP practices and pharmacies, seems to be a simpler solution for genuine community care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe government needs to rethink its strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give frontline workers a voice to be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAUK GP co-lead Dr Steve Taylor has represented the organisation at two major national conferences and helped strengthen relationships between general practice and community pharmacy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":3481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[22],"class_list":["post-3480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-practice","tag-dr-steve-taylor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3485,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3480\/revisions\/3485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}