As little as £180m of the £645m funding promised over two years for the Government’s flagship Pharmacy First programme is likely to be delivered to pharmacies in England by March 2025, throwing the future of the scheme “in doubt”, the NPA has claimed.

The warning comes as around 6,000 community pharmacies across the UK took part in last week's day of action to highlight the severe financial challenges facing the sector.

Pharmacists turned out their lights, wore black and blacked out their windows to raise awareness of the impact of a 40 per cent reduction to pharmacy funding over the last decade.

The NPA has written to the leaders of the three main UK parties asking them to commit to deliver the funding which has already been set aside for Pharmacy First by the outgoing Government. 

Without this, pharmacy owners will be left with a “black hole” in their already stretched finances, which could further damage the network, says the NPA, currently shrinking at a rate of 10 pharmacy closures a week and 1,400 over the last decade.

It is only with adequate funding that community pharmacies can help provide extra support for patients and cut GP waiting times, the association adds.

NPA analysis shows that at the current rate, only £180m is expected to be delivered to pharmacies in England out of the £645m that the Government has allocated. “That means, as it stands, community pharmacies are set to lose £465m without a commitment from the future government,” says the trade association.

The Pharmacy First funding shortfall has been caused by the delayed roll-out of the scheme, “ongoing IT glitches”, the “modest fee” paid to pharmacists for seeing patients – with many consultations resulting in no payment at all – and “a reluctance by some GPs” to refer patients to the scheme.

This funding shortfall “throws into doubt the future of the Prime Minister’s flagship scheme”, the organisation claims.

In letters to Rishi Sunak, Sir Kier Starmer and Sir Ed Davey, the NPA warns that such a shortfall “would be devastating for our sector, especially against the backdrop of 10 local pharmacies closing their doors every week on average so far this year, due to the £1.3bn funding black hole in NHS community pharmacy in England.”

Paul Rees, NPA chief executive, commented: “The consequences of further pharmacy closures for patient care and access to medicines would be disastrous. Due to chronic underfunding, community pharmacies subsidise the NHS to the tune of £108m per month for dispensing medicines. Which other clinicians are expected to deliver NHS services at a financial loss?”

Pharmacies are being pushed to the brink by ongoing financial pressures, he continued. “Pharmacy First is such an important opportunity and pharmacies are determined for it to be a success. However, if most of the money promised for the scheme is clawed back by the Government, it risks leaving a black hole in already depleted pharmacy finances.”