Pharmacies warn they might shut if they do not get reduction from tax rises
Pharmacy leaders have warned they could be forced to cut their opening hours or close completely if they are not shielded from tax rises facing businesses.
Analysis by Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has found the National Insurance increase could cost chemists £50 million, while the increase in the national living wage could cost between £115 million and £152 million. It comes after government real-term funding cuts of 40% in England over the last decade have forced over 1,500 community pharmacies to close and many more to cut back opening hours.
The Mirror is campaigning to save family chemists and stop the closures which are piling pressure on overstretched GPs. The CPE, along with the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA), and the Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA), have written to Health Secretary Wes Streeting to warn the measures could push more pharmacies towards insolvency.
Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the IPA, warned that the sector is “hurtling towards a disaster” which could “completely undermine any attempt to fix the NHS and shift care into communities”. She said: “The brutal reality is that local pharmacies have to pay their bills. Without the mitigating action we call for, these extra costs will be catastrophic for pharmacies. We need urgent actions before these measures undermine community pharmacies’ ability to help with the NHS 10-year plan.”
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The measures announced in the Autumn Budget came as pharmacies are set to launch their first ever industrial action with many across Britain cutting their opening hours. NPA members voted to conduct ‘work to rule’ actions from January which can also include stopping free medicine deliveries, emergency contraception services or addiction and stop smoking support.
The letter to Mr Streeting from pharmacy leaders comes after GPs warned some surgeries could make staff redundant or close as a result of tax changes. Organisations representing care homes and hospices also voiced concerns about the sectors’ ability to plug the funding gap soon after Ms Reeves’ announcement.
Nick Kaye, chairman of the NPA, said: “Unlike most businesses pharmacies cannot pass these costs onto their patients and have limited means to absorb them themselves. Pharmacies are ambitious to expand their role and want to work with the Government to deliver the best possible services for their communities and take pressures from other parts of their health system. However, they simply cannot do this until these oppressive funding challenges are met.”
Janet Morrison, chief executive of CPE, warned the measures will “wreak havoc on an already fragile community pharmacy network”, while Malcolm Harrison, chief executive of the CCA, described the proposals as “short-sighted”.
