Three quarters of community pharmacies across England are losing money due to funding cuts and increased costs, Community Pharmacy England’s (CPE) 2026 Pressures Survey has today revealed.
The survey of more than 2,900 pharmacy owners and 900 staff found that daily drug shortages and rising operating pressures are putting pharmacies under increasing strain, with just 14% saying they are “currently profitable”.
Almost all pharmacies reported higher operating costs than in 2025, with 99% saying NHS reimbursement fails to cover medicine costs and 95% citing rising staffing costs as a key pressure.
Read more: Pharmacies losing millions a month due to NHS ‘underfunding’
A third of pharmacy owners are looking at cost-cutting measures they believe will impact patients, while a quarter have not taken any salary or income in the last year and 15% are using personal savings to keep their pharmacy afloat.
Further attempts to manage costs have seen 18% of pharmacies making staff redundant, 21% expecting to reduce their opening hours in 2026, and 29% considering charging patients for unfunded services that were previously offered for free.
Read more: Address medicine shortages by supporting pharmacies, urges MP
According to the survey, 76% of respondents said patients are being impacted by the pressures facing the sector, while 72% of pharmacy staff said medicine shortages are impacting patients every day.
Some 88% of staff also reported patients making multiple visits to separate pharmacies to seek advice or obtain medication, and 86% of pharmacies said they were spending longer procuring medicines than they did the year before.
“Enormous” pressure
Fin McCaul, a community pharmacy owner based in Greater Manchester, said his pharmacy team is “increasingly being diverted away from patient care” because they are “spending so much time trying to source medicines that should be readily available”.
He added that current funding “does not reflect the real-world pressures” pharmacies are facing, including “inflation, staffing costs, rent, utilities and medicines costs”.
“Pharmacies need to be supported for the full contribution we make to patients, local communities and the NHS,” he said.
Read more: ‘Worsening’: Price concessions hit yet another record high
And Dervis Gurol, a pharmacy owner and superintendent pharmacist based in the South East of England, told CPE the pressure of owning a pharmacy is now “enormous”.
“On the financial side, many colleagues have had to rely on additional financing and personal savings simply to cover day-to-day costs and bills, and that cannot go on much longer,” he stressed.
“This sort of worry has huge mental health implications, and I know many pharmacy owners are seeing their health worsen as a consequence of long-term stress.”
“Deeply concerning”
CPE chief executive Janet Morrison said it was “deeply concerning to see the depth of the financial crisis” across the pharmacy sector.
“These stark results show us once again that pharmacies are not sustainable, and that the pressures on them are directly affecting patient access to medicines and care,” she added.
She said pharmacies having to reduce their opening times and introduce new charges goes “directly against the government’s ambitions to shift more healthcare, closer to home”, and called for “meaningful investment alongside a clear long-term plan”.
“Not fair or sustainable”
National Pharmacy Association chief executive Henry Gregg said funding pressures and medicine shortages are having a “detrimental impact” on patients, adding that it is “not fair or sustainable” for pharmacy owners to “subsidise the running of a vital NHS service” with their personal savings.
“Pharmacies still face a funding gap of over £2bn and until there is meaningful progress in meeting this, pharmacies will continue to have to cut back services to patients and in some instances close entirely,” he said.
Read more: ‘Has to change’: Pharmacy numbers shrink as demand grows
Meanwhile, Independent Pharmacies Association chief executive Dr Leyla Hannbeck stressed that the government “must now act”.
“That means ending the ludicrous situation where pharmacies are expected to dispense medicines at a loss, introducing the same business rates relief that GP surgeries and dental practices receive, and delivering the long-term structural reforms needed to put community pharmacy on a sustainable footing,” she said.
“Without urgent action, more pharmacies will close, and more patients will lose access to the front door of the NHS.”
Read more: Over half of pharmacies could ‘limit services’ over funding gap
It comes after a House of Lords report published in February found that the government is “not proactive” enough in preventing drug shortages.
And it follows research by delivery service Gophr revealing that over 500 pharmacies were forced to close their doors in the last three years.