When will the government finally make good on its almost year-old commitment to meet the additional costs incurred during COVID-19 by NHS providers? While some sectors of the economy have received government bailouts for being closed, many community pharmacies are in debt because they’ve stayed open to keep people well and save lives. Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, many pharmacies were experiencing significant cashflow problems, but the pandemic has put even more in peril of closure.

Meanwhile, last year the government handed out £257 million to arts and cultural organisations and £849m to cafes and restaurants through the Eat Out to Help Out scheme. Let me put it bluntly – you can live without a pizza, but you can die without your pills and the associated healthcare provided by pharmacies.

You can live without pizzas, but you can die without your pills. Some sectors have received bailouts for being closed, but pharmacies are in debt because they’ve stayed open to save lives. #fairfunding to #saveourpharmacies https://t.co/KAUKlyzt2i pic.twitter.com/8aWklGKsda

— National Pharmacy Association (@NPA1921) February 10, 2021

Throughout the pandemic, pharmacies have risen to the challenge of staying open and continuing to see patients, even while other parts of the health system went behind closed doors. Now they are also part of the battle to vaccinate the population against COVID-19.

Failure to reimburse local pharmacies for the costs of COVID-19 would be a slap in the face for the people in the sector who have worked so hard in this essential part of the NHS. As it stands, money has been advanced to the sector only on a temporary basis.

According to a report by accountancy firm Ernst & Young, up to 38% of pharmacies were already in financial deficit in 2019. Many of them will be in deprived neighbourhoods. So, there’s another inherent unfairness in the way pharmacies are being treated. Cuts to community pharmacy budgets often mean cuts to health services for the people who are most in need of healthcare. 

If pharmacies are forced to close then the inevitable result will be more pressure on the NHS as people turn to GPs and A&E departments for the help that they can currently get conveniently in pharmacies. Over 400 pharmacies closed in 2019/20, according to the NHS Business Services Authority.

Pharmacy closures would also make the NHS less resilient against the impact of future shocks like another pandemic. Is that fair to anyone in this country, after everything we have endured together? Surely not.

Pharmacies are simply asking to be paid the unavoidable extra costs of serving patients during the pandemic, as they have been promised. A National Pharmacy Association (NPA) poll conducted last summer with 1,000 respondents showed that 54% of the public said the grant should not have to be repaid. It’s time for the Treasury to get in step with public opinion and reimburse pharmacies for the costs they have borne in their efforts to stay open and save lives.

Andrew Lane is chair of the NPA