The union called on Mr Yousaf to urgently intervene and “stop corporations” from deciding to temporarily close their community pharmacy branches in a statement published yesterday (August 10).

“Denying patients access to a community pharmacy can mean the denial of their ability to receive necessary medicines, advice, and services, some of which may be life critical,” the PDA said.

It is only “a matter of time” before patients get seriously harmed by these decisions, it warned.

Mr Yousaf should let the Care Inspectorate – a body that ensures the quality of care in Scotland meets high standards – take over regulation of pharmacies, “including their premises, staffing levels, safety, and treatment of patients”, it recommended.

It also repeated calls for the introduction of a “regime of financial sanctions” on companies breaching standards and for the NHS to take over failing pharmacies.

Read more: Sanction companies to end temporary pharmacy closures, PDA tells Scottish gov

A Scottish government spokesperson told C+D that it is up to contractors to ensure they are providing all of the NHS pharmaceutical services that have been agreed with their health board.

When this is not possible, contractors must speak to their health board primary care contracts team, “who will work with [them] to minimise any disruption to patient care”, they said.

“Health boards can take a range of actions in response to any breach of terms by a pharmacy contractor,” they added.

 

Increased scale of temporary closures

 

The PDA revealed last year that a “minimum of 574 [temporary pharmacy] closures” occurred in Scotland between June 1 and August 31, 2021.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the PDA noticed that the “scale of closures… dramatically increased” due to several factors, including temporary regulatory policies allowing pharmacies to “depart from established procedures” under “exceptional circumstances”.

“The PDA believes that this gave some pharmacy businesses the opportunity to consider the financial benefit of operating some of their pharmacies without a pharmacist present, also known as ‘remote supervision’,” it said.

The union believes that there has been a “rapid evolution of closures” due to a lack of action or penalties from the government, regulators, or NHS to stop them.

Last month (July 19), the union wrote a letter to UK health secretaries, NHS chief executives, the four UK chief pharmaceutical officers and the chief executives of the General Pharmaceutical Council and the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland, accusing them of having “accepted the fallacy” that such closures were down to pharmacies being unable to secure cover.

Read more: ‘No one’s taking responsibility’: PDA pens open letter on temporary closures

However, PDA director Paul Day told C+D today (August 11) that the union has yet to receive an official response to its open letter.

The subject of pharmacist shortages has been a divisive one, with some arguing that there is a concerning lack of pharmacists, while others maintain that the register has never been so full.

Tesco Pharmacy is the latest multiple to have come under fire this month, following reports that one of its Lancashire branches could face full or part-day closures during much of August due to a predicted lack of available pharmacists, C+D understands.