Wicker Pharmacy in Sheffield received the top rating from General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) inspectors in 2014 – one of only four known to have done so in three years.

But Martin Bennett said the cuts to funding in England mean the pharmacy would have “difficulty in repeating our success”.

“The biggest guarantee of being ‘excellent’ is having well-trained staff with sufficient time to do the job properly,” he told C+D. “Reduced funding will inevitably lead to reduced staff and a poorer service.”

“Excellence may have to take a back seat to survival in the coming months [and] years,” Mr Bennett added.

Last month, C+D revealed that just four out of 8,000 pharmacies inspected by the GPhC up to September 2016 have been rated as excellent. See the full results here.

Mr Bennett was speaking to C+D as part of a feature published today (May 4) on why so few pharmacies achieve the ‘excellent’ rating – and how they can work towards this. Read more of his comments in the full feature here.