Pharmacies vote to cut services unless UK government acts over ‘crisis’

Pharmacies have said they will halt a number of services within weeks, including the end of free medicine deliveries and extended opening hours, unless the government drastically boosts funding for the sector to stem an “escalating crisis”.

In a high-turnout ballot run by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), which represents independent community pharmacies, 99% of pharmacy owners said they were willing to limit their services in the interests of patient safety if improved funding was not forthcoming.

A total of 63.5% of members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland took part, representing 3,399 independent community pharmacies.

Leaders in the sector warned that a failure to boost funding for pharmacies would lead to further closures and said the “sense of anger” among pharmacy owners had intensified after the budget, citing the 6.7% increase in the national minimum wage and rise in employer national insurance (NI) contributions.

Unless funding for pharmacies is boosted in the coming weeks, pharmacy owners have voted to:

• Serve notice on opening hours above the minimum required by their contract – meaning fewer pharmacies will be open in the evenings and at weekends.

• Stop making free home deliveries of medicines that are not funded.

• Withdraw from locally commissioned services, including some local addiction support services, emergency contraception and smoking cessation support.

• Refuse to cooperate with certain data requests above those required for patient safety and contractual minimums.

• Withdraw from supplying free monitored dose systems (medicine packs) that the NHS does not pay them to provide, other than those covered by the Disability Discrimination Act.

Nick Kaye, the chair of the NPA, said he had “never experienced a situation as desperate as this”. He said: “Pharmacies desperately want to support their local communities with access to medicines and advice but have been forced into an untenable position by a decade of underfunding which has led to a record number of closures.

“The sense of anger among pharmacy owners has been intensified exponentially by the budget, which has tipped even more pharmacies to the brink. Pharmacies don’t want to reduce services but we will be left with no option but to suggest that pharmacy owners should consider acting on the clear ballot results if the government does not act to protect this vital and much-loved part of our health service.”

Dr Leyla Hannbeck, the chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association, said: “The community pharmacy sector is in an escalating crisis with a £1.7bn shortfall in its funding. This has got worse with the hike in the employer NI resulting in £12,000 extra costs annually for our members. As healthcare professionals, we believe that patients must not be caused suffering by any withdrawals of our members’ valuable and vital professional services.”

The association said that over the past decade more than 1,250 pharmacies had closed, 700 of them in the last two years alone.