The majority of pharmacy owners did not take any “salary or income” from their business last year, CPE this week (November 11) revealed.
The negotiator’s 2025 report on staffing and morale, which surveyed over 800 pharmacy owners and 1,600 staff between January and March this year, said that 60% of contractors or directors had not taken any earnings from their business in the previous 12 months.
Read more: ‘Teetering on the brink’: 63% of indie pharmacies facing closure
It also found that more than half (52%) of pharmacies had been “subsidised by personal savings” over the same period.
CPE said that 77% of those surveyed had not been able to cover wholesaler or other bills on time, while nearly half (48%) had struggled with “staffing or locum costs the business cannot sustain”.
And 21% of pharmacy owners reported having to make staff redundant, it added.
“Deepening crisis”
CPE chief executive Janet Morrison said that the survey “lays bare the deepening crisis in community pharmacy staffing and morale” - and warned that “funding challenges are pushing many owners to halt recruitment, close their branches or even consider selling their pharmacies”.
“We must work collaboratively across the NHS and government to ensure meaningful investment in community pharmacy, better workforce support and a sustainable funding model,” she added.
Read more: Economic review reveals half of pharmacies ‘not profitable’
Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) chief executive Malcolm Harrison said that pharmacy funding “has simply not kept pace” with increases in patient demand, dispensing and clinical services.
“Additional investment in the sector is critical to enable businesses to invest in their workforce and systems, to ensure that capacity can meet growing demand and to ease pressures currently facing pharmacy teams,” he added.
Read more: ‘It adds up’: Pharmacy owner takes out £10k loan to cover NHS drug bills
It comes after surveys by CPE and the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) revealed in August that almost four in 10 (37%) pharmacies are unable to pay wholesaler bills on time and 63% could close for good in the next 12 months.
The CPE survey also found that 45% of pharmacy owners had dipped into personal savings or remortgaged their homes in the last year to subsidise medicines costs.
