Back in 2016, as C+D reported, then-pharmacy minister, Alistair Burt, talked about closing 1,000 to 3,000 pharmacies through funding austerity.
In recent years, we have seen hundreds of closures, but the economic reality is there are far more to come. One in three pharmacies are no longer financially viable. This is the independent assessment of Ernst & Young and health professors from University College London and the London School of Econmics.
Read more: Taking the right decisions now can avert disastrous pharmacy collapse
A recent answer from the government to a parliamentary question tabled by the MP Helen Morgan shows that cumulatively from 2019 to now, taking inflation into account, the government has effectively reduced pharmacy funding by £790 million and stated funding will remain flat for the last two years of the five-year contract.
Taken together, that could amount to a £1 billion reduction in real-term funding over the lifetime of the community pharmacy contract.
No wonder we have seen hundreds of random pharmacy closures in recent years. With inflation running rampant along with continued flat funding, this closure rate will inevitably increase rapidly. This makes no sense at a time when the NHS is facing the greatest patient pressures since its inception.
Read more: Pharmacy bodies blast ‘devastating’ English funding deal
Let’s be clear – a contracting community pharmacy network restricts access to essential NHS care and risks patient harm as a result. It piles further pressures on GPs and A&E departments. That cannot be acceptable.
Hopefully with a new Prime Minister, we will see a new direction and investment in community pharmacy as the third essential pillar of access to NHS care.
Jeremy Meader is managing director of Numark