Pharmacy contract applications have slowed dramatically since the government scrapped the 100-hour exemption in September and placed the onus on pharmaceutical needs assessments.

Property and legal experts told C+D that few PCTs had identified an unmet need in the needs assessments for their areas. This had left applicants with little option but to prove they could offer an unforeseen benefit.

Six months on from the change in regulations, the success rate of these applications is yet to be seen. Insiders reported that PCTs had struggled to approve new pharmacies while juggling the demands of the NHS reforms.

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	Pharmacy brokers Hutchings Consultants said the new system represented a dramatic departure from the old regulations, when the company could see two or three contract applications made in the same area in "a matter of weeks".

Noel Wardle, partner at law firm Charles Russell, also reported a noticeable drop in applicants compared with levels under the previous control-of-entry rules.

"We've dealt with a few distance-selling applications, but there are fewer new pharmacy applications than previously," he explained. "The applications that we've seen have almost entirely been ‘unforeseen benefits' applications – presumably because there are very few PNAs that identify an unmet need."

Hutchings forecast that the tough environment would continue. "I think that... we will see very few pharmacy applications being approved and those that are will be where there is a real need or benefit perceived for those services," said Hutchings Consultants pharmacy consultant Scott Hayton.

Applications that had been made were still hanging in the balance, Hutchings added, because PCTs faced the "huge strain" of market-entry powers being transferred to the NHS Commissioning Board.

Mr Wardle agreed that applications were "taking a while" under September's regulations and he had yet to hear of a PCT making a decision.

Brokerage group Christie+Co stressed that concrete applications would still stand a chance. "We anticipate that genuine applications will be successful but applications from those seeking to challenge the new regulations and looking for chinks in the wording may not be," argued Christie+Co director and head of pharmacy advisory services Matthew Williamson.

Control-of-entry regulations changed on September 1 last year, after the government scrapped the 100-hour exemption and put a new onus on PNAs. To open a pharmacy successfully, applicants must now demonstrate that they will address an unmet need identified in the PNA or provide unforeseen benefits not anticipated at the time of the assessment.

At the time, the changes were widely welcomed by pharmacy because, pharmacists and MPs argued, 100-hour pharmacies had flooded the market.

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