The National Pharmacy Association has said severe funding pressures that continue to jeopardise the existence of community pharmacies has forced it to take the unprecedented step of balloting its members on work-to-rule action.

The trade body for independent pharmacies in the UK said it intends to ballot members within days on whether they are prepared to reduce services and cut their hours.

The majority of pharmacies are contracted for a minimum of 40 hours a week but the NPA stressed “the majority” remain open longer to offer out-of-hours or weekend services.

The NPA also said it will ballot members on stopping free deliveries or free medicine dispensing packs, boycotting data collection “beyond that required in their contract” and halting locally contracted services.

The NPA said the ballot will be open for six weeks and insisted any action agreed by a majority of members could occur before Christmas.

“Community pharmacies are committed to providing a safe service but our ability to provide that safe provision will soon be put at risk by continued declining funding, mass pharmacy closures and growing workloads,” a motion in the ballot said.

“We are putting the NHS leaders on notice that we cannot guarantee community pharmacy services will remain safe into the future if current depressed funding, pharmacy closures and increasing workload trends continue.”

Pharmacy petition will be delivered to Downing Street this month

The NPA will deliver a petition with over 350,000 signatures to Downing Street this month in an attempt to increase the pressure on the government to give community pharmacy a new, improved contract.

The NPA said a funding increase of £1.3 billion in England is needed “to plug the financial blockhole facing community pharmacies.”

NPA chief executive Paul Rees said “it pains” his organisation to ballot members on work-to-rule action but insisted it was necessary with pharmacies “being pushed to the brink by a decade of real terms cuts that has slashed 40 per cent from their funding.”

Pointing to 1,500 pharmacies that have closed in the last decade, he said: “We desperately want to work with (health secretary) Wes Streeting and the new Government to unleash the vast potential of pharmacies to deliver the better health in the community that we all want.

“But despite big settlements for junior doctors and train drivers since the election, there is no sign as yet of an end to the chronic real terms cuts that is literally driving dedicated healthcare professionals in pharmacies out of business.”