Save Our Pharmacies!

What happened on NPA day?

The 20^th of June 2024 was the NPA’s first national day of action. Across the UK, 1000s of  community pharmacies took joint action in petitioning for increased funding to help provide better support for our patients. Thousands of small, local pharmacies are at a breaking point, facing permanent closure due to insufficient NHS funding. Keen-eyed patients may have spotted lights-out in pharmacies on the morning of NPA day… Thankfully we can keep our lights on (for now) but the same is not true for the over 1,300 other community pharmacies that simply didn’t receive enough NHS funding to survive. We’ve lost over 1300 pharmacies since 2017 that’s more than 10% of pharmacies permanently lost to the local communities they used to serve. The rate of closures is only accelerating with time as funding remains far below what pharmacies need to stay afloat. In a cruel twist, this disproportionately affects poorer communities, leaving those most needing community pharmacies with nowhere to go.

Another facet of NPA day was pharmacy teams wearing black to express the extent of the dark times for community pharmacy.

Earlier this year, a new NHS service, Pharmacy First was introduced to community pharmacies. Patients love it! As if proof were needed of the massive potential value of community pharmacies for the NHS, the nation’s pharmacies have already provided over 560,000 pharmacy first services (thus freeing up 560,000 GP appointments).

Since each GP visit costs the NHS £42 on average, that means Pharmacy First has already saved the NHS an astonishing £23.5 million. But this also means a huge increase in the workload placed on community pharmacies.  All of this provided with zero increase in core funding to support the service.

Our Pharmacy had blacked-out windows on the day of action. Your initial thoughts might be “that’s strange!” but the aim was to express the REAL possibility that our pharmacy could close. Forever.  How much would this affect our community?

Why does pharmacy funding need to be improved?

Pharmacies are becoming ever more vital to overall healthcare provision. They are the first point of call for the nation when health advice is required and to pick up medications. But providing medication is not cheap. All pharmacies are struggling to maintain supply of medicines. Often pharmacies will lose money when dispensing your prescription because the NHS refuse to pay the cost of medicines we supply to patients. Sufficient funding would mean that patients can visit local pharmacies with confidence, knowing that your life-saving medication will be readily available. Financial constraints have only worsened with inflation which is another factor in creating the perfect storm resulting in so many closures over recent years.  Lack of funding has forced some pharmacies to stop providing essential NHS services for patients. These pharmacies cannot afford to continue to provide these services at a loss.

What is the problem facing community pharmacy?

The nation’s Community Pharmacy network is in a bad position. Community Pharmacies receive 90% of their income from the NHS, yet unlike general practice, pharmacy funding has not increased year-by-year. Current funding does not consider, staffing, fuel costs or inflation. Far from an increase, pharmacies have actually seed reduced funding over the years. There’s been a roughly 40% decrease since 2015. Community pharmacies desperately need more funding to even stay open.  Some may mistakenly believe that we can simply increase the price of medications. WRONG! Unlike other businesses, pharmacies cannot change the price of medication to combat inflation. We don’t set the prices. The government does. This is why pharmacies actually lose money on NHS prescriptions we supply to patients.

We source and pay for the medicine, yet the government often refuses to pay us back what it costs to purchase the medicines we dispense. This makes addressing the funding crisis even more crucial. Due to these factors (and more) community pharmacy is currently being set up to fail, leading to most pharmacies working in permanent “crisis mode”.

We’re forced to cut back opening hours, delivery services and many other services we would otherwise provide in our attempt to survive. As 1000s of pharmacies vanish forever and the remaining pharmacies cut back, patients have no choice but to visit GPs and even A&E departments in a desperate attempt to seek support. These services that patients are forced to use actually cost more money for the NHS then community pharmacies. We all know that getting a GP appointment is difficult and that the NHS is cash-strapped. But cutting back on community pharmacy simply makes a bad situation worse.  The knock-on effect further damages health services in a period where people already struggle to see a GP and are waiting hours for an A&E appointment. All of this at a time when the NHS is becoming more reliant on pharmacies to provide more services such as Pharmacy First.

The NPA could be community pharmacies' last hope

The NPA are attempting to help save community pharmacies. They are vocal advocates about the need for increased funding. Paul Rees the CEO of the NPA has been spearheading this campaign through relentless media coverage and petitions to the government. Any avenue to get the message across to government officials that community pharmacy is on the brink of collapse. NPA’s day of action is a desperate attempt to raise public awareness about the state of community pharmacy. Public support to #saveourpharmacies may be our last hope.

In a perfect world we would follow the junior doctors’ example to protest against current funding in a more impactful way, i.e. by striking. But due to the critical nature of what pharmacies provide, not to mention our moral obligation to our patients as pharmacists and clinicians, this will never happen. Pharmacists cannot, even for the sake of adequate funding stand by whilst depriving people of health services they rely upon. In the same vein as our day of action, pharmacies will continue to work until we can no longer support staying open, and we close for good.

What can I do to help?

We appeal to our patients to write contact their MPs and make the case for increased funding for community pharmacies. The government are simply increasing the workload of pharmacies without the funding needed to support them. Posting on social media with the hashtag #saveourpharmacies and making lots of noise about the issue are all ways that you can help us get the funding that we need to keep the nation’s community pharmacies open. Without more funding we risk losing these pharmacies altogether and forever.  Without strong public support, the government will likely not make the change so desperately needed. 

Conclusion

Community pharmacies currently face a bleak future. Urgent action is needed to keep them in business, so patients can receive excellent healthcare at an affordable price. Without action, we risk losing community pharmacies and all the benefits that come with them. Fewer services and longer wait times for patients to receive medication have simply created more pressure on the rest of the NHS. As the situation worsens, we face even worse conditions within the NHS with even longer wait times to see a GP. Moreover, insufficient funding will cause yet more pharmacies to close leading to a downward spiral of more severe issues across the country. The potential of community pharmacies to do more is huge. Pharmacy First has been the first step. But we must secure adequate funding for pharmacies to provide these services and not fall by the wayside.

Pleas to government officials and posts online about the state of funding can help encourage the government to support pharmacies properly. Pierremont Pharmacy and the NPA rely on your support. We all know what happened with the Post Office so please don’t ignore the issue until its too late. Support us online or by campaigning with the NPA to help achieve a brighter future for community pharmacies.