The National Pharmacy Association has said its analysis of NHS data revealed the number of pharmacies that closed in England last year hit its second highest number on record.

NHS Business Services Authority data showed 222 pharmacies shut their doors for good in 2024, according to pharmacy’s trade organisation, who again warned that pharmacies across the country are struggling to stay open to the backdrop of poor funding and the absence of a settlement for 2024-25.

The NPA said almost 700 pharmacies have closed since 2022, “leaving England with its lowest number of pharmacies in nearly 20 years and forcing patients to travel record distances to access vital medicines.”

“Closures also put significant pressures onto neighbouring pharmacies and risk a domino effect, massively increasing workload and staffing costs without proper renumeration,” it added.

The NPA said its analysis showed the highest rate of closures in council areas per head of population in the last two years was in West Berkshire which overtook Plymouth. Third highest was in Liverpool.

The NPA described West Berkshire as England’s “pharmacy desert” because it has the fewest pharmacies per patient. Cornwall, the NPA said, had witnessed “a surge in pharmacy closures,” with nine closing in the last two years.

It said Wokingham, Bracknell Forest and Oxfordshire also had “some of the lowest numbers of pharmacies per head of population.”

At least one pharmacy had closed in 90 per cent of council areas in the last two years.

The NPA warned existing pharmacies “have been pushed to breaking point by 40 per cent real terms cuts to their funding” and many were “left hanging on by their fingertips.”

It urged the government to “urgently start consultations on this year’s pharmacy funding settlement” and again warned ministers NPA member pharmacies will embark on work to rule action, including reducing their services, if Labour fails to start funding talks.

“It is patients that have lost out the most, with more people in isolated areas having to travel further for vital medication as well as access to medical advice convenient to them,” said NPA chair Nick Kaye.

He said pharmacies’ “patience with the failure to commence consultations on the current year’s settlement has worn paper-thin.”

“Pharmacies simply cannot wait any longer for a settlement that should have been agreed and paid nearly more than a year ago,” he said.