Many 100-hour pharmacies are likely to close during the next five years due to financial pressures, MedicX Pharmacy chief executive Steve Jeffers has warned.

A "glut of applications" for 100-hour pharmacies ahead of the expected removal of the exemption would leave many contractors "locking themselves into a contract where they don't make any money", Mr Jeffers told C+D in an exclusive interview. "A lot of existing 100-hour pharmacies that are located in community settings will close over the next five years," he predicted.

Mr Jeffers said he believed the existing exemptions to control of entry "weren't right", but he warned that to have no competition in the market would be bad for patients, stressing that there "had to be a way to stop local monopolies from developing". "I think it should all be based on quality of service and whether [pharmacies] provide an excellent quality service and have good hours of access," Mr Jeffers said.

"A lot of existing 100-hour pharmacies located in community settings will close over the next five years" Steve Jeffers, MedicX Pharmacy

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"If they do, there should not be a new pharmacy – if they don't then there should. With no competition I think patient services may suffer." Last month, figures revealed in parliament showed that an increasing number of 100-hour pharmacies have opened in recent years. In a written response to a question from Kevin Barron MP, health minister Simon Burns revealed that in England there were 450 100-hour pharmacies open in 2008-09 but 689 in 2010-11. Responding to the figures, Independent Pharmacy Federation chief executive Claire Ward this week urged the government to "act now" to stop pharmacists being undermined by the "rapid rise in new pharmacies". "We know that independents in particular are facing real pressures from the growing number of 100-hour pharmacies," she said.

"When the current year's figures are revealed, I suspect we will see an even greater jump as those who fear the end of this route into pharmacy try to secure a 100-hour application," she added.

The comments came on the back of news that the government had again stalled on providing a date for a decision on removing the 100-hour pharmacy exemption, repeating what it told delegates at April's PSNC conference that a final decision would be made "soon".