I like the idea of community pharmacies refusing to dispense medicine to politicians, in the same way that pubs discussed refusing to serve them in the row over business rates.
It would never happen, because community pharmacy is not like that.
Yet even the fact it wouldn’t, and why, rams home that pharmacy is misunderstood and undervalued but becomes very understandable and rewarding indeed when you need medicine.
It’s why community pharmacy exists. To sit on the high street, often unloved by those claiming to cherish it, purely to be there when people of all persuasions need medicine, advice or reassurance.
And much more besides, especially now community pharmacy is lifting heavier weights in the shape of services to relieve the pressure on GPs.
Break
Community pharmacy is a private sector clobbered with private tax rates - and a vital public service. Give it a tax break!
There are around 10k community pharmacies in the UK, around half of them qualify for some level of business rates relief.
Read more: Include pharmacies in business rates relief, urges NPA
It’s a very rough ballpark figure, the variability of rates paid does not make for a clean calculation of any veracity, but the government could scrap business rates for all community pharmacies for around £150-£200m a year – or about 5% of the CPCF’s £3bn budget. That would give community pharmacy a high street lifeline and the government a PR win.
Of course £200m is not chump change. And community pharmacy is not the only sector experiencing death by 1,000 pinches. Some might say pubs also provide a vital public service, and they do. But they don’t save lives like community pharmacies do.
Yes, another tax rise will see some pubs close. Where have I heard a warning like that before.
Read more: Political Pills: What more can pharmacy do?
The UK has great affection for its pubs, they are wonderful places and they provide a public service. But it’s almost impossible to compare a pub to a community pharmacy. One serves medicine, the other serves alcohol.
But if the latest business rate rise is now under review, and pubs have caught a tax break as a result, the government could do worse than question whether the public service provided by a community pharmacy is no less important.
The question of business rates and pharmacy has lingered for a while and I’m certainly not the first to call for an exemption and try to illustrate just some of the compelling reasons why.
As the next CPCF deal hovers into view, with contractors everywhere adopting the brace position, scrapping business rates for pharmacies – or at the very least upping the level of relief – would be a clean PR win for the government.
And it would offer some balm to a very sore sector, and inevitably benefit patients. Even politicians.
