Around 6 out of every 7 people in the UK live in England. Most of the pharmaceutical industry is based within its borders. The greater part of the hospitals and the primary care organisations are in England. For some of our competitors, that’s a reason for concentrating on England.

We’ve never done that. We work in all the home countries, each of which is producing good work that can profitably be shared with neighbours. Just today we’re putting finishing touches to the PM Academy meeting in Wales, working on the publicity for the PM National Forum for Scotland and setting up meetings to progress a Clinical Leadership in Pharmacy project for the whole of Ireland. On our Events page we have separate listings for each of the countries.

What can we say about the five countries? The people are different. The NHS is different – of course, it does not extend to the Republic of Ireland. The issues they face are different. There is no single answer to all those challenges – but then we’ve always known there isn’t in England either. Whether it’s Portsmouth and Southampton, Newcastle and Sunderland or Leeds and Bradford, you don’t have to go far to find real differences. We’re not a company that believes that one trick we know will work everywhere.

It’s good that we’re different and that each nation is making its own choices on health. We’re ready to do our bit to support them all.