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A community pharmacy contractor has told P3pharmacy he believes the financial measures announced in the 2025-26 Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework won’t come close to addressing the deficit that rising employment costs are set to open up for his business. 

Akash Patel, superintendent pharmacist at Trio Pharmacy in Shepperton, said he was “disappointed” with the deal and believes the National Pharmacy Association should press ahead with plans for collective action that were put on hold while the NPA considers the new contractual settlement. 

Mr Patel said: “The biggest thing I thought they would have done – which they haven’t even considered – was things like inflation, business rates, national insurance and minimum wage. They’ve not even bothered to do that.

“I’ve done the calculations in terms of roughly how much the contract will add to my pharmacy. It comes out at something like £6,000 a year. But we’re nearly £12,000 in debt from the minimum wage and other cost rises.

“That’s not going to touch anything.” 

Mr Patel was critical of changes to service fees, commenting: “This capping system is ridiculous, reducing the hypertension checking fee from £15 to £10. What I don’t understand is that they’re trying to encourage blood pressure checks. Why not have a flat fee that takes into account the time and the cost?” 

He called for a funded dossette tray service and said the Government should consider bringing back the Medicines Use Review service, arguing that since MURs were decommissioned in 2021 pharmacies now do this work “free of charge”. 

And he argued that the sector “needs an audit trail” for prescriptions reimbursement, adding: “We send off a bundle of prescriptions and hope to get paid accurately – it’s crazy. Our item clause fluctuates month by month.” 

Mr Patel said there should be greater focus on drug shortages which he described as "dire," adding that helping patients source alternative medicines often eats into time that should be spent providing clinical services.

On the single activity fee rising to £1.46, he said: “It doesn’t match the cost pressures, technically they should have agreed a figure of around £1.65 or £1.70, that’s what would have helped keep businesses afloat. Even with this uplift, we’re still behind where we were in 2019 – that’s what the economic analysis report says.”

He added: “I think Community Pharmacy England should go back to the Government and say, this is the actual contract we require. Don’t forget, we’re not just dealing with one or two years, we’re dealing with 10 years of underfunding. We’ve been neglected, basically.

“I’d rather CPE hadn’t accepted it and really pushed the Government to what we should have had, which was set out in the economic analysis – closer to the £5bn mark.”

Mr Patel said he thinks the NPA should “bite the bullet” and resume its plans for work to rule action. 

“I’ll be the first one to do it,” he said.