Pharmacy owners in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have voted to cut opening hours and stop home deliveries for the first time, in a protest over government funding. The National Pharmacy Association (NPA), which ran the ballot, is calling for an annual £1.7bn funding increase to plug the “financial hole”.
It says 99% of respondents said they were willing to limit their services unless funding was improved. Some 3,339 independent community pharmacies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland took part in the unprecedented ballot, which is a turnout of 64%.
The vote comes after the Budget saw increases in National Insurance contributions and the National Living Wage. The government has not committed to supporting pharmacies to cover these costs, the NPA says, unlike other parts of the NHS.
700 pharmacies have shut in England in the last two years alone – the equivalent of seven a week – because of workloads and budget cuts. The NPA adds that core government pharmacy funding in England has fallen by 40% since 2015-16, after adjusting for inflation. It says it will be left with no choice but to recommend pharmacies withdraw services from as early as the new year if funding isn’t increased.
NPA chairman Nick Kaye said the ballot result “overwhelmingly shows the anger and frustration of pharmacy owners at a decade of cuts that are forcing dedicated health professionals to shut their doors for good”. He said he cared deeply about his patients – like other pharmacy teams – but he has never experienced a situation as desperate as this. “Pharmacy owners are not a radical bunch. We have never proposed action like this before, but after a decade of underfunding and record closures, something simply has got to give.”
