NHS England's decision to end a support scheme for small pharmacies is affecting patients in the most deprived areas, MPs have said.

Stopping national top-up funding, which supported low-volume businesses more than 1km from another pharmacy, on March 31 had also impacted the elderly and those with small children, the MPs said. These patients would “struggle” to access pharmacy services further away from home, according to a parliamentary motion signed by 18 Labour MPs and one Democratic Unionist Party MP.

Labour MP for Gateshead Ian Mearns, who launched the motion on June 23, told C+D that the decision to end the scheme had left small pharmacies on the “verge of having to close shop”. He urged NHS England to act with “haste” over the 48 pharmacies who have still not been told whether they will receive alternative funding locally.

“This is an important matter [that's] been raised by one small community pharmacy in my constituency, who are very much in danger of going out of business. [The funding] is not to top up their profits, this is essential to their existence,” he said yesterday (June 30).

C+D reported on Monday that NHS England regional teams had turned down applications for continued funding for five of the 102 pharmacies previously on the scrapped scheme. Nine pharmacies had been granted further funding for less than a year, the commissioning body told C+D.

"Irrational expectations"

In the motion, the MPs criticised NHS England's “irrational expectations” for small pharmacies to increase their income once their top-up funding was cut. These businesses were now under “unreasonable pressure” to boost their prescription volumes, the MPs said.

The end of national funding also had ramifications for substance misuses programmes delivered by affected pharmacies, they said.

MPs last debated small pharmacy funding in March, when health minister Jane Ellison MP claimed that patients would still have access to pharmacy services even if some businesses were forced to close. But Mr Mearns said this view was “no longer valid” because there had since been a change in government.

Early day motions allow MPs to draw attention to a cause in the House of Commons. Very few are actually debated, but Mr Mears said he would seek a response from a government minister this week.

In March, C+D launched a campaign to press NHS England for decisions on funding for small pharmacies. 

Do you know of any small pharmacies still waiting for a funding decision?

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