Nine in 10 (91%) of pharmacy businesses in England responding to the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee’s (PSNC) pressures survey reported experiencing staff shortages, with the average affected pharmacy losing more than 13 hours a month because of the issue.

According to estimates from 418 contractors and head office representatives – representing more than 5,000 pharmacy businesses – the total cumulative number of hours of unexpected closures by all affected pharmacies in one month was 7,598, equivalent to 844.2 days of closures, PSNC noted.

 

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PSNC’s investigation comprised of two surveys launched in mid-January. The first was completed by pharmacy business owners and head office representatives, while pharmacy team members completed the second.

 

COVID-19 behind staff shortages

 

COVID-19-related absences and self-isolation were the most significant driver of staff shortages, cited by 81% of owners and head office representatives, while 51% said difficulties covering the costs of staffing were leading to shortages in their pharmacies.

Some 23% of business owners said they had had to reduce pharmacy opening hours opening hours because of insufficient staffing.

Almost all (98%) reported that difficulties in staffing had increased the pressure placed on their staff and another 85% said employees were having to work more hours as a result.

 

All pharmacies experienced medicine supply issues

 

“No team members said that they were never experiencing issues” with medicines supply, PSNC wrote in its summary of the surveys’ results.

Some 67% said they had to deal with medicine supply issues every day, while 21% reported having to do so multiple times per week and another 9% weekly.

Pharmacy teams spent on average more than five hours each week trying to resolve supply issues, the survey found.

 

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Medicine supply issues also cause frustration among patients, with 75% of pharmacy team members saying that they have faced aggression from patients due to these.

 

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Pharmacies’ operating costs on the rise

 

The vast majority of business owners and head office representatives (97%) reported higher pharmacy expenses “than this time last year”, PSNC found.

Rising staff wages was a main driver of growing costs according to 96% of the contractors who responded to the survey, while 60% named fuel and transport costs as contributing factors.

Over half (53%) of business owners said increased demand from patients and having to dispense more prescriptions were driving up their operating costs.

Worryingly, about 61% said they were concerned about their ability to keep their pharmacies open due to mounting costs, which PSNC stated “could very negatively impact patient access to healthcare in the future”.

 

Increasing demand for pharmacy support

 

While contractors said they had been grappling with a rise in operating costs, the results of PSNC’s survey show that pharmacy teams also faced an increased workload.

 

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This is “a trend that is unlikely to ease as the government looks to make better use of community pharmacy to help with the country’s pandemic recovery, and patients continue to rely on their local pharmacies more than ever before”, PSNC wrote.

Medicine supply issues were not the only factor adding to pharmacy teams’ hefty workload.

When responding to the survey in January, some 74% said they had been receiving more requests from members of the public for healthcare advice and 82% said they had been responding to “a notable increase in patient phone calls”.

This was echoed by pharmacy business owners, with 90% stating that their business had been seeing a significant increase in patient phone calls about prescriptions.

“There have also been significant increases in patients displaced from GPs to pharmacies and incorrect information being provided by GP practices to patients,” PSNC wrote in its analysis.

 

“Distressing” results of “immense pressures”

 

PSNC CEO Janet Morrison said the surveys’ results “make distressing reading for anybody in the sector”.

“They tell a story of teams under immense pressures, and of businesses at crisis point,” she stated.

It is “imperative”, Ms Morrison added, that the care pharmacies provide to patients on a daily basis “does not fail”, both for the good of patients and “of the wider NHS”.

PSNC has communicated its findings to NHS England and NHS Improvement and the government, and “will continue to press them to give the sector the additional support it needs”, Ms Morrison added.

The negotiator noted it is currently “seeking this, along with a new fully funded pharmacy minor ailments walk-in service, in the ongoing negotiations on year four of the five-year Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework”.