Who Moved my Cheese, by Spencer Johnson, is a recommended read. It’s a business fable that illustrates how attitude to change influences outcomes. It is a story about mice and humans, Scurry, Sniff, Hem and Haw, who are faced with dwindling supplies of cheese and have different approaches to the situation they find themselves in. There are many parallels for where we are now in pharmacy – a true tipping point, where our future will depend on how we all respond to the need to change.

The ‘cheese’ (prescription supply) for community pharmacy is dwindling, and there are strong indicators that this will accelerate. NHS England has outlined the need for community pharmacy reforms, funding will become increasingly difficult (against a context of £30 billion savings required across the NHS by 2020), competition for other providers will increase, and consumers will continue to want more, better, faster.

With this rapidly changing environment, we can be like Hem in the story and feel victimised and angry. He blames others for his situation and does not look around for more cheese. However, Haw starts to wonder what he could do if he were not afraid, and what could be achieved if he did something new.