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Representatives from Community Pharmacy Northern Ireland (CPNI) travelled to Stormont yesterday where they warned the country’s health committee pharmacies will continue to close unless they get immediate investment.

CPNI, which represents over 500 community pharmacy contractors across Northern Ireland, told the committee the pharmacy sector has been grappling with a funding deficit of £20 million a year for over a decade, leaving many pharmacies on the brink of closure.

Pharmacy’s negotiating body also warned many pharmacists have been defaulting on their wholesaler bills which CPNI said was “a clear indicator of the severity of the financial strain being felt across the community pharmacy network”.

A recent CPNI survey revealed 43 per cent of pharmacy contractors had been unable to pay their medicine bills on time.

It told the committee “recurrent funding difficulties coupled with the increase in national insurance contributions” will add a £12.4 million “burden to the recurring £20 million deficit”.

Pharmacist Turlough Hamill, who runs Hamills Pharmacy in Portadown, said pharmacies “are at a breaking point and the financial pressures passed an unsustainable level long ago”.

“It is no exaggeration to say that without prompt intervention, the very future of community pharmacy services is at risk, leaving patients without essential access to medicines and advice,” he said.

He warned pharmacists were having to “subsidise costs with personal savings or defer payments” which resulted in medicines being withheld. They were also taking out high-interest rate loans to make ends meet.

“We acknowledge the funding challenges within the health service, but it is important that we bring a sense of reality here today to the situation facing community pharmacy in Northern Ireland and by extension, primary care and the wider health service,” he said.

“We are calling on the Department of Health to address and resolve the fundamental funding model once and for all.”

During CPNI’s survey, 81 per cent of contractors said they would not recommend the profession to others.