Vision, politics, pharmacy clubs, elitism, free services and where community pharmacy goes next

Ian Strachan is a community pharmacy owner contractor. He owns a number of pharmacies in England. He was the Chair of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) between 2014 to 2018.

I have wanted to chat with Ian for a while now. He really has operated at the top of UK pharmacy politics for quite some time and has led the way with many innovative initiatives through his community pharmacies.

We had a wide-ranging and fascinating conversation about many aspects of community pharmacy.

Community pharmacy politics in England is a complicated and often turbulent arena. This came out in the chat but we offset these challenges with some positivity as we looked to the future. A fulfilling and attractive career pathway for pharmacists working in community pharmacy was important to both of us.

Ian is passionate about the profession and in particular, he cares deeply about the professionalisation of community pharmacy. We discussed what he thought the vision for the future of community pharmacy should be in the coming years and delved into some notable long-standing community pharmacy topics like free deliveries for example.

Ian is as enthusiastic an advocate for community pharmacy that I have spoken to for a while so it was fascinating to get his insight.