As negotiations on the 2026/27 funding deal get underway, an independent pharmacy chain has accused Community Pharmacy England (CPE) and the government of ignoring a “damning” economic analysis of the sector during last year’s contract talks.
In a letter sent to MPs on March 2, Fairmans Pharmacy director Julie Forster said the chain, which operates six branches in the North East of England, has “never felt so let down” by its governing bodies.
Read more: ‘Depressing’: pharmacies funded a ‘brutal’ £800m less than decade ago
She stressed that the “continued lack of funding” means that if the sector does not receive a funding uplift in April, Fairmans Pharmacy will have to make “devastating changes” for “our business, our livelihood, to survive”.
The changes will include closing all six branches on Saturdays and cutting opening times to 5pm from Monday to Friday, Forster added, meaning their total opening hours will reduce by 74.5 hours a week.
Read more: ‘Open after 9pm’ pharmacies fall by over 90% in three years
“Given that we are one of the only independent pharmacies which now open on a Saturday, can you imagine what losing another 74.5 hours per week will do for the NHS?” she said.
And she cautioned that reducing the chain’s opening hours will have a “knock-on effect” for patients and the health service, including higher demand for out-of-hours services and the government having to “step in” to make these more available.
“Hold CPE and government accountable”
Forster’s letter also pointed to the NHS’s independent economic analysis of the pharmacy sector, published last March, which identified a £2bn shortfall in funding.
Forster said the report was “damning” and had left her hopeful that the funding settlement due to be announced days later “would be good news”.
But she said Community Pharmacy England (CPE) and the government “totally ignored” the analysis when they agreed the 2025/26 contract, and it is time they “are held accountable”.
Read more: Pharmacies losing millions a month due to NHS ‘underfunding’
“The fact that they did not address the issues in our funding last April has resulted in more pharmacy closures and more pharmacies reducing their hours,” she said.
“The government has forgotten what a crucial, enormous cog we are in the health system,” she added. “If we are allowed to die in the community, this health system will cease to turn.”
“The time for brushing this under the carpet has ended.”
CPE was “aware”
CPE told C+D that many pharmacies across the country are “taking difficult decisions and steps to remain open”, including “reducing their opening hours, stopping provision of unfunded services, closing branches, not recruiting when staff members leave and putting personal funds such as pensions into their businesses”.
“We have been warning the government - both privately and in public - for many months that this is unfair and unsustainable: community pharmacies urgently need further investment and support”, it said.
The body added that the independent economic review (IER) of the sector “took much time to conclude”, but CPE committee members “were aware of the draft findings through the last CPCF negotiation” and they “were critical in persuading the government to uplift pharmacy funding”.
Read more: ‘Unfair’ business rates will be discussed in contract talks
“Government funding decisions are made across numerous government departments including HM Treasury,” it said. “Ahead of the last negotiations we worked to influence this process via multiple routes, including our submissions to spending reviews, the development of economic analysis and investment cases, political and wider influencing work and using the IER.”
“All of these had an influence and led to the funding uplift in 2025/26, which was agreed by CPE as a first step towards sustainability.”
C+D approached the Department of Health and Social Care for comment.
Read more: ‘Real economic peril’, CPE warns Kinnock in ‘uncompromising’ letter
It comes after CPE announced last week that negotiations on community pharmacy’s 2026/27 funding contract have commenced.
And it follows the UK government confirming that funding for pharmacies in England is £800m less in real terms than it was a decade ago.
Responding to a parliamentary question last month, pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock said that the real-terms value of pharmacy funding for 2025/26 is £3.073bn, compared to £3.864bn in 2015/16.
