Research has revealed that pharmacies across England are failing to deliver vital NHS and public health services due to the overwhelming financial and operational pressures they face.
In a poll of pharmacy managers representing more than 2,100 pharmacies, more than 96% of respondents said they had stopped providing local referral services in the past 12 months.
These include emergency contraception and products to help people quit smoking.
Four in five pharmacy owners surveyed (81%) said they had had to stop offering extended hours, and 90% said they had had to stop hiring temporary pharmacists due to high costs.
Of 92 pharmacy managers surveyed by representative group Community Pharmacy England, more than a fifth said they had been forced to stop delivering prescriptions to patients for free.
The survey comes after data showed that almost 1,000 pharmacies have closed in England since 2017, with deprived areas disproportionately affected.
Pharmacy First was fully launched on 1 January this year, and patients in England can now get treatment for seven common illnesses, including urinary tract infections and shingles, from a pharmacy without having to see a GP.
Janet Morrison, chief executive of Community Pharmacy England, said: “Patients and communities across England are paying the price of the collapse of the community pharmacy network, with thousands of pharmacies being forced to cut back on the services they can provide. This is a decision no pharmacy wants to make, but with a substantial 30% funding cut and skyrocketing costs, pharmacy operators are being forced to make impossible decisions in order to stay open.”
Nick Kaye, chairman of the National Pharmaceutical Association, said: “The country’s community pharmacies are under huge pressure and their vital work on the frontline of the health service is completely underfunded.
“This has inevitably resulted in cuts such as shortened opening hours and the cessation of free medicine deliveries to patients who are unable to leave their homes. To make matters worse, over 1,000 pharmacies have been forced to close over the past decade.”
“The Government should be investing in us to reduce GP waiting times but at the moment we are going backwards rather than achieving our potential as skilled clinicians.
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He added: “If GPs limited the number of appointments they could make each day, more patients would come to their local pharmacy for help, but after years of cuts, pharmacies are in a bad position. Their ability to act effectively as a buffer in the event of disruptions in other parts of the health system is undermined, leaving them with serious capacity challenges.”
“We need a new contract for community pharmacy that properly funds our work and enables us to deliver an excellent NHS service.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “The NHS is dysfunctional and pharmacies have been undervalued for too long.”
“This Government will shift the focus of the NHS from hospitals to the community. We will accelerate the rollout of independent prescribing and expand the role of pharmacy, making better use of pharmacists’ skills, including by establishing community pharmacist prescribing services.”
