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The National Pharmacy Association has today advised its 6,000 member pharmacies to limit their services if the Government fails to come up with “new and sufficient funding” by April 1, with looming employment costs set to hit their businesses hard.

NPA chair Nick Kaye said “a lack of sight and clarity” on a new funding deal for community pharmacy, coupled with rises in national insurance, national living wage and business rates coming into effect in two weeks’ time, left it with no choice but to recommend pharmacies reduce opening hours or other services.

The Government is in talks with Community Pharmacy England on 2024-25 and 2025-26 funding arrangements. The health secretary Wes Streeting told parliament on March 13 the Government is in the “very final stages” of agreeing a new deal.

Fewer pharmacies could open in evenings and weekends

However, that has been of little comfort to pharmacies across England who are struggling to stay open because of inadequate funding and increasing overheads and are still waiting for details on a new contract.

The NPA said its measures “could involve fewer pharmacies opening in the evenings and at weekends, limiting home deliveries and withdrawing from some locally commissioned schemes like addiction support”.

It is the first time in the NPA's 104-year history that collective action has been taken. It said “a wholesale reduction in hours could result in up to one million hours in pharmacy time lost over the next year”.

The NPA cautioned “safety is the top priority for every pharmacy” and insisted it was for each one “to determine what action they can safely take and give patients and local NHS boards notice of any changes to ensure continuity of care”.

The NPA warned pharmacies willing to embark on action must give the NHS five weeks' notice of a change in their opening hours.

Kaye told a press briefing yesterday the NPA was “not frightened of further collective action” should the new funding deal fail to properly support pharmacies.

Hopefully, we won’t need further collective action

However, he stressed the NPA Board would need to look at the details of any deal struck between the Government and CPE before committing itself. “Hopefully, we won’t have to do that,” Kaye said.

The NPA said pharmacies’ funding has been cut by around 40 per cent in real terms since 2017, “forcing record numbers to close”. It said 29 pharmacies have shut since the start of this year and 1,300 had closed their doors in the last eight years.

“Around 90 per cent of an average pharmacy's work is funded via the NHS, including dispensing medication and vaccinations,” the NPA said, insisting it was “ready to work” with the Government “on a solution to the funding crisis”.

The NPA added: “Although the end of the current financial year is just days away, pharmacies are yet to receive any confirmation of funding for either the 2024-25 or 25-26 financial years that might allow them to avoid service reductions.”

Insisting collective action is “not a step anyone of us wants to take”, Kaye said: “It is better that we temporarily reduce access in the short term than to let pharmacies collapse altogether under the weight of unsustainable operating costs.”

CCA: We share NPA’s concerns about funding crisis

The Company Chemists’ Association said it shared the NPA’s concerns “about the continued funding crisis in community pharmacy”.

A CCA spokesperson said: “A decade of underfunding has led to 1,200-plus pharmacies closing and many more being forced to reduce their opening hours or withdraw services previously provided without charge.

“Pharmacies cannot be expected to subsidise the delivery of NHS services any longer. Unless there is change, and the pharmacy network receives additional funding, patients will face a continued reduction in NHS services delivered by pharmacies, and more pharmacies will close.”