‘I’ll be 6% worse off with Boots’ reduced pharmacy hours'
Following the news that Boots plans to reduce its operating hours in “lower-demand” pharmacies, an anonymous pharmacist from the multiple explains the impact they believe this will have on them, their colleagues, and their patients
I am a Boots pharmacist and some of the branches in my area – including mine – will have their hours reduced, as per my employer’s recent announcement that it will be cutting opening hours by an average of 6% across its UK pharmacy network.
Boots has suggested the stores that will be affected are those with “lower-demand” pharmacies.
From my experience, the stores that have been unaffected so far are small local pharmacies or the much larger stores. Since the pandemic, shopping habits have dramatically changed, and the small local pharmacies did get a lot more trade. Large shops have been, and remain, significantly quieter. Market towns have become really busy and continue to be so.
Boots also appears to have “de-registered”* some stores, enabling them to reduce pharmacy opening hours and close at lunchtime, although the shop can still trade non-pharmacy items. (See legal explanation, right)
*Legal explanation provided by Noel Wardle, solicitor and partner at Temple Bright LLP specialising in pharmacy law
Boots pharmacies are most likely normally registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) as the whole premises (or at least the whole floor that contains the dispensary). This means that the GPhC will regulate all activities on that floor, and this may limit what can and can’t be done there.
It is not uncommon to “de-register” certain parts of registered premises so that they fall outside the registered pharmacy premises. This allows certain activities to be carried out in those parts of the premises which would otherwise not be permitted without a pharmacist.
So, by way of an example, “out of hours” prescription collection machines are (I understand) often placed in a “de-registered” part of the premises so that medicines can be collected by patients without needing to be done under the supervision of a pharmacist. Another example would be in a supermarket, where only the actual dispensary footprint is registered with the GPhC and this allows the supermarket to sell cigarettes or alcohol in other parts of the store.
Boots has in some other stores reduced the opening hours to match core hours, or more closely resemble them. This does not take demand into account. The hours that some stores will now be closed are some of their busiest times of day.
Personally, I will be more than 6% worse off – moneywise – each week following these changes. Some people will lose much more than this. I will be working fewer hours, but that is not what I want to do. Pharmacists are not the only people being affected by this. Pharmacy staff and wider store colleagues will also be affected.
“We’ve been rewarded for our hard work by having our pay potentially slashed”
It has been extremely difficult for some people to get an appointment with their GP over the past two years. This is obviously different in different areas. What is consistent, however, is that Boots stores have been open for the whole period. Our pharmacists and staff have been available and have encountered health problems that we have never seen before.
I have seen severe skin cancer that the customer described as a spot on his ear, debilitating cases of shingles and so many other things. Many of these have been referred to me from the GP Community Pharmacist Consultation Service scheme. I have been able to see these patients quickly and refer them to the right people, so that they get timely and appropriate treatment. Some customers would never have seen their GP, as they could not get an appointment, while others have had telephone consultations that have misdiagnosed their problem due to the limitations of such appointments.
We must have made record returns from pharmacy services, with flu vaccination provision at least 50% up on last year. Items appear to be stable and lateral flow test kits are creating a huge amount of demand and, I suspect, revenue.
We have been rewarded for our hard work by having our hours and pay potentially slashed. This at a time where energy costs are rising at unprecedented levels, inflation is over 5% and we have seen our pay already reduced in real terms. We will get a 2% pay award this year, we got nothing last year.
Less patient access to pharmacists
Boots has said that these changes mean that total pharmacy opening hours across its UK branches will decrease by less than 6%. As a result, patients will have 6% less access to pharmacists.
There have been many headlines about the number of missed cancer diagnoses over the past few years. We as pharmacists are uniquely positioned on the high street to help ease the burden on the NHS. Unfortunately, our time and availability will be limited, first by the hourly cuts and secondly by then having to complete the work that we previously did in fewer hours.
I do not see how we can possibly achieve all the advanced services that we previously did. We have to ensure that we do not allow our professional integrity or the safe provision of medicines to be compromised. I fear our very busy working days will become more concentrated, with the same workload to deliver in less time.
Boots cannot expect pharmacists to deliver anything other than the basic contract if we are only being paid to work core hours. For me, pharmacists must now clock in and out at their exact start and finish times and not go above and beyond for a company that does not seem to care.
Does Boots care about more than just profit?
How many health problems will now be missed and how much more pressure will be put on GPs and the NHS?
Mask mandates are imminently planned to stop, footfall will return to relative normality and will most likely increase from where we are now. Yet Boots has decided that this is the ideal time to make these cuts.
Boots always used to have a question in their staff surveys that said something like: ‘Do you feel that Boots cares about more than just profit?’
My answer is very definitely no.
