The growth of supermarket pharmacies could undermine the sector's accessibility by putting their high-street counterparts out of business, Labour shadow health secretary Andy Burnham has warned.

Pharmacists had a vital role to play in self-care but this would only work if patients could easily access their local pharmacy as a "first port of call", he told an all-party pharmacy group meeting on the future of pharmacy last week (September 11).

"It's important to protect the community pharmacies people can walk to, otherwise it won't be an entirely accessible service" Andy Burnham, shadow health secretary, Labour	More on supermarket pharmacies Sainsbury's targets pharmacy for business growth Sainsbury's to roll out £40 healthy living programme Asda made most last-minute 100-hour applications MORE NEWS
	"Pharmacies are gathering towards supermarkets and I do have a worry that there are a lot of people who can't get to a retail park," Mr Burnham said. "They [pharmacies] are shifting towards places where people can [only] get to with cars and I think it's important you protect the community pharmacies where people can walk to, otherwise it won't be an entirely accessible service."

The growth in supermarket pharmacies came mainly as a result of changes to the control of entry rules, made under the Labour government in 2005. The regulations almost guaranteed entry into the market for pharmacies that opened for 100 hours a week until the exemption was scrapped in July 2012.

In the year before the abolition the big four supermarket chains – Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons – together represented a quarter of the 100-hour pharmacy applications, a C+D investigation found.