Pharmacists may close on evenings and weekends in protest over funding

Pharmacies could be ‘left with no option’ but to refuse to open in the evenings and at weekends in protest at a lack of funding.

Some could also withdraw from providing emergency contraception and stop smoking services.

Owners have voted in favour of collective action for the first time in their history, with the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) saying they ‘have been forced into an untenable position by a decade of underfunding’.

The trade association warned that pharmacists ‘don’t want to reduce services’ but ‘will be left with no option’ if there is not an adequate response from the Government on funding in the coming weeks.

Some 3,339 independent community pharmacies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland took part in the ballot, a turnout of 64 per cent.

Of those who voted, 97.8 per cent said they would serve notice on opening hours above the minimum required by their contract, meaning fewer will be open at evenings and weekends. According to the NPA, pharmacies are contracted to open for 40 hours a week minimum, although most are open for 50 hours a week on average.

Elsewhere, some 96.1 per cent voted to withdraw from locally commissioned services such as emergency contraception, addiction support and stop smoking services, while 96.8 per cent voted to stop supplying medicine packs that the NHS does not pay pharmacies to provide, other than those covered by the Disability Discrimination Act.

Almost all (99.2 per cent) voted to refuse to co-operate with certain data requests above those required for patient safety and contractual minimums. The NPA chairman Nick Kaye said: ‘Pharmacies desperately want to support their local communities but have been forced into an untenable position by a decade of underfunding, which has led to a record number of closures.

‘I have never experienced a situation as desperate as this. Pharmacy owners are not a radical bunch, we have never proposed action like this before, but after a decade of underfunding and record closures, something simply has got to give.’

The NPA estimates about 700 pharmacies have shut in England in the past two years, with more than 1,250 closing in the last decade.

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Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association, added: ‘The community pharmacy sector is in an escalating crisis with £1.7billion shortfall in its funding. This has got worse by the hike in the employer NI resulting in £12,000 extra costs annually for our members.

‘As healthcare professionals, we believe that patients must not be caused suffering by any withdrawals of our members’ valuable and vital professional services.

‘The Government must urgently raise pharmacy funding to prevent further closures of community pharmacies.’

Since last year, the Mail’s Save Our Pharmacies campaign has highlighted how a crisis in funding has forced the closure of huge numbers of pharmacies.

Research this year suggested that the closure of community pharmacies in England since 2019 may have generated 2.5million extra GP appointments.