Why This Year Feels Different
Pharmacy in the UK has rarely faced a more complex or consequential moment. The NHS 10 Year Health Plan is reshaping the architecture of primary care. Neighbourhood health models are redefining how services are delivered at community level. Workforce pressures are intensifying. Digital tools are multiplying. And pharmacists, particularly those with independent prescribing qualifications or aspirations, are being handed both new responsibilities and new opportunities at a pace the sector has never quite experienced before. Against that backdrop, The Pharmacy Show 2026 isn't simply a trade event. It's a professional essential. The education programme, the exhibition floor, and the conversations between sessions are all calibrated to help you make sense of what's changing and to give you practical tools to respond.The Education Programme: Eight Specialist Theatres and One Practical Forum
The show's education programme is structured across eight dedicated theatres and a hands-on practical forum, each with a specific focus and audience in mind. Here's what each space offers.The Keynote Theatre
Exploring the forces shaping the future of pharmacy The Keynote Theatre sets the strategic context for the entire event. Bringing together senior leaders, policymakers and respected voices from across healthcare, it creates a shared space to reflect on the profession's direction and the system-level pressures that shape it. Topics include:- Entering the IP-by-default era
- The NHS 10 Year Health Plan
- Neighbourhood health
- The future of commissioning
- Contractual framework updates
The Business and Services Theatre
The commercial realities of running a pharmacy today As income streams evolve and margin pressure continues, this theatre delivers practical guidance on building sustainable services and resilient business models. Sessions are rooted in real-world experience and designed to support owners and managers with informed decision-making. Topics include:- Developing and scaling private services
- Hub and spoke updates
- Making investment decisions with limited capital
The Clinical Theatre
Evidence-based education for an expanding clinical role With pharmacists and their teams taking on greater clinical responsibility than ever before, this theatre focuses on safe, effective and evidence-based practice across both NHS and private pathways. Topics include:- Independent prescribing
- Clinical management of common conditions
- Medicine optimisation
The Pharmacy Owners Forum
A candid, peer-led space for owners and senior leaders Dedicated to the specific challenges of running a pharmacy business, this forum tackles the harder strategic conversations around sustainability, governance and workforce. It's designed for owners, superintendents and senior leaders looking for honest, practical peer exchange. Topics include:- Clinical governance and regulatory responsibility
- Workforce empowerment and delegation
- Preparing for funding and contractual uncertainty
The Public Health and Innovation Theatre
Prevention, community impact, and new models of care This theatre examines pharmacy's role in improving population health and reducing inequalities at a local level. With prevention and self-care increasingly central to the NHS agenda, sessions highlight opportunities to deliver meaningful impact through accessible, community-based services. Topics include:- Prevention, self-care and health literacy
- Pharmacy's role in tackling health inequalities
- Early intervention and harm reduction
The Primary Care Pharmacy Theatre
Collaboration and integration across local health systems As new care models continue to emerge, this theatre explores how community pharmacy can work more effectively alongside GP practices, neighbourhood teams and commissioners. Sessions are practical and system-focused, supporting teams to strengthen relationships and deliver joined-up care. Topics include:- Integrated neighbourhood teams
- Working effectively with GP practices
- Independent prescribing frameworks
The Technology and Digital Health Theatre
Practical digital tools for safer, more efficient practice This theatre cuts through the noise around pharmacy technology and focuses on what genuinely works. Sessions prioritise real-world impact, integration and usability over hype, covering tools that reduce workload and improve patient outcomes. Topics include:- Workflow optimisation, automation and interoperability
- AI in pharmacy: prioritising patient safety
- Online consultations
The Leadership, Workforce and Careers Theatre
Supporting the people who make pharmacy work As roles expand and expectations grow across the whole pharmacy team, this theatre focuses on the human side of professional development. From leadership capability to career planning, sessions support recruitment, retention and progression in a changing landscape. Topics include:- Credentialling and portfolio careers
- Exploring different career options
- Emotional intelligence, leadership and resilience
The Practical, Clinical and Consultation Skills Forum
Hands-on workshops and live demonstrations For those who learn best by doing, this forum offers open practical workshops and clinical demonstrations on topics including:- ENT
- Cardiology
- Blood pressure assessment and management
Sessions to Bookmark: Highlights from the Programme
With so much on offer across two days, it can help to plan ahead. Here are four sessions the team are particularly excited about.Choosing the right private service to invest in: building your non-NHS pharmacy business Pharmacy Owners Forum | Sunday 11 October | 10:30 to 11:30 Speaker: Amerjit Singh, Managing Director, Sharoe Green and Skills4Pharmacy For any pharmacy owner exploring private services as a way to diversify income and reduce reliance on NHS contract funding, this session is a must. Amerjit Singh brings genuine commercial expertise to a question that many owners are grappling with right now: not just whether to invest in private services, but which ones, and how to build them sustainably.
From strategy to reality: the NHS 10 Year Plan one year on Keynote Theatre | Monday 12 October | 13:20 to 14:00 Speakers: Henry Gregg, CEO, NPA; Malcolm Harrison, Chief Executive Officer, The Company Chemists' Association (CCA); Dr Leyla Hannbeck, Chief Executive Officer, Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA); Rebecca Bastable, Membership Director, APTUK; Alastair Buxton, Director of NHS Services, Community Pharmacy England A panel session that brings together the most significant representative voices across the pharmacy sector to take stock of where the NHS 10 Year Health Plan stands one year on. If you want to understand the real-world gap between government strategy and frontline delivery, this is the room to be in.
A new frontier for pharmacy technicians: unpacking the new changes Keynote Theatre | Sunday 11 October | 17:30 to 18:00 Speaker: Amy Laflin, Vice President and Interim President, Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK An important and timely session for pharmacy technicians and those who manage them. Amy Laflin, one of the most prominent voices in the technician profession, unpacks the regulatory and professional changes redefining what it means to be a pharmacy technician in 2026 and what those changes mean in practice.
What the Exhibition Floor Offers
Beyond the education programme, the exhibition floor is where the show really comes alive. With over 340 exhibitors representing every corner of the sector, the floor gives attendees the chance to get hands-on with the latest dispensing technology, speak directly to suppliers, compare solutions side by side, and take advantage of exclusive show-only offers and demonstrations that simply aren't available anywhere else. Whether you're evaluating a new patient management system, exploring packaging and labelling solutions, or looking at clinical tools that could support service expansion, the exhibition is the most efficient way to do your research. You'll find suppliers ready to answer real questions from practitioners who actually understand the job. New for 2026, The Pharmacy Show is also offering a "Networking Hour", helping attendees leave feeling informed, energised, and part of a wider community shaping the future of pharmacy. Visit the what's new page to find out more, or browse the full list of exhibitors to start planning your time on the floor.Who Will You Meet?
The Pharmacy Show attracts a genuinely broad cross-section of the profession. Community pharmacists and independent owners sit alongside primary care pharmacy teams, PCN clinical leads, pharmacy technicians, dispensers and healthcare entrepreneurs. Add to that the policymakers, commissioners and sector leaders appearing throughout the education programme, and you have a concentration of professional knowledge and influence that you simply won't find at any other UK event. The conversations that happen in the corridors between sessions, over lunch, or at the end of the day on the exhibition floor are often as valuable as the formal content. The Pharmacy Show creates the conditions for those conversations to happen.
The Pharmacy Mentor team will also be at The Pharmacy Show 2026, and we can't wait.
As a digital agency working exclusively with pharmacy businesses across the UK, it's the event where we get to meet the people we exist to support.
Pharmacy Mentor provides branding, website design, SEO, social media management and paid digital marketing services specifically for pharmacies. If you're looking to attract more patients, promote new services, or simply make your pharmacy easier to find online, we'd love to have a chat. Read more about the services we offer... or we'll see you in Birmingham!