AIMp CEO Dr Leyla Hannbeck told C+D that although the sector is “very serious about being a solution for the NHS”, there appears to be “an agenda to destroy” it.

While Dr Hannbeck stressed that she wasn’t “blaming” anyone for the situation, she pointed to a list of “ingredients” that was holding the sector back, such as a lack of funding and resources and no overall “vision”.

“That’s the recipe - it's completely mixed and cooked up,” she told C+D.

Read more: PSNC: Pharmacy First must not be left to ‘piecemeal’ local commissioning

Contractor and AIMp member Ian Strachan agreed with Dr Hannbeck’s comments, calling the situation “a calculated demise of the network through fiscal attrition”.

Speaking exclusively to C+D, he accused the "machinery of government" of trying to “decouple” community pharmacy from its workforce by “luring” pharmacists into higher paid primary care roles that have a “more favourable” work-life balance.

C+D approached NHS England (NHSE) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) for comment.

Bricks-and-mortar pharmacies at risk

It comes after Mr Strachan, who was formerly on the board of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), attended an “emergency summit” of sector leaders and politicians co-ordinated by the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) last week (March 21).

Forming part of the Save Our Pharmacies campaign, the 15 MPs who attended the meeting were briefed on the “severe challenges facing the sector” and the “very urgent need for additional funding”, according to PSNC. 

Read more: ‘Short-sighted at best’: PSNC blasts recruitment of 4k PCN pharmacists