Access to community pharmacies “remains good” despite closures across England, pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock said in parliament last week (September 19).
Answering a written question from Labour MP Amanda Hack about the “rate of community pharmacy closures” countrywide, Kinnock said that there are “over 10,400 pharmacies in England”.
“Despite a reduction in the number of pharmacies, access to pharmacies remains good,” he said.
Read more: ‘Teetering on the brink’: 63% of indie pharmacies facing closure
The Labour MP for Aberafan Maesteg, Wales, added that more than 80% of people “live within one mile of a pharmacy” and there are “twice as many pharmacies in the most deprived areas”.
He said that in some rural parts of the country where no pharmacies are available, GPs “are permitted to dispense medicines to their patients”.
Kinnock also pointed out that there are “over 400” NHS online pharmacies that patients can use to access medication and pharmacy services.
Read more: Kinnock ‘shocked’ to find pharmacy is a ‘car crash’
He added that community pharmacy saw the “largest uplift of funding” in the NHS in March, when Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) funding was increased to £3,073bn.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DH) said at the time that it had retrospectively increased funding for 2024/25 by £106m (4.1%) to £2,698bn to “cover the activity delivered by the sector” during that time. It simultaneously increased it again to £3,073bn for 2025/26.
Read more: Revealed: Which areas have lost the most pharmacies?
Kinnock’s comments come after the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) revealed last month that more than 60% of independent pharmacies could close in the next year without additional financial support from the government.
NPA analysis of NHS figures also showed that an additional 72 pharmacies in England have closed this year so far - the equivalent of around two a week or 10 a month.
Read more: Pharmacy closures will place ‘great strain’ on GPs, RCGP warns
And in April, new data commissioned by the Liberal Democrats revealed that regions across the UK “have been decimated by the loss of pharmacies leading to a stark postcode lottery”.
Analysis of NHS England (NHSE) dispensary data by the House of Commons Library found that between September 2016 - the year that substantial cuts hit the sector - and January 2025, England and Wales lost a net 1,020 pharmacies.
