Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has warned that many community pharmacies are “hanging on by a thread, losing money and struggling to cope with the ongoing demand from patients and the public”.
As patients “rely on their local pharmacy” to “stock up” on their prescriptions and other medicines before the holidays, pharmacies are experiencing a particularly busy period, the pharmacy negotiator said last week (December 19).
Read more: Morrison: Next pharmacy contract ‘expected’ to be one-year deal
This year, these pressures are being “compounded” by a “troubling flu season, resident doctor strikes and severe financial pressures”, it added.
To add to this, community pharmacies are “still operating under huge financial and operational pressures as a consequence of rising costs and demand”, CPE stressed.
And it also noted that pharmacy owners are ending the year “with no certainty about the future funding beyond March 2026”, along with the knowledge that the autumn budget “will add yet more costs”.
“No break in sight”
CPE claimed that contract negotiations are “just around the corner” and called for “real progress” to be made by the government in its “commitment to a sustainable future for the sector”.
And it added that the negotiator is “continuing to do everything that it can to prepare for those negotiations and to make the wider case for investment into community pharmacy”.
Read more: Contract negotiations delayed amid government ‘conflict’
CPE chief executive Janet Morrison said “community pharmacy owners and their teams find themselves exhausted, with no break in sight as they work through some of the busiest days of their year”.
“Thank you to everyone for all the incredibly important work that you do, and the resilience that you show to keep going, day in and day out,” she said.
Read more: CPE: 60% of pharmacy owners took no earnings last year
Morrison also said that the negotiator hopes to start funding negotiations “early next year”, stressing that the sector needs “more help, and urgently” from the government.
“The value of pharmacy is clear; we now need political commitment and progress on closing the funding gap and getting better support to pharmacies to safeguard the future of the network,” she added.
