Pharmacists concerned their businesses won't survive winter pressures

Community pharmacies have warned that patients will be put at risk this winter with more than a third of pharmacy owners are worried their business may not survive the winter.

A survey conducted by Community Pharmacy England during October and November found that seven in ten pharmacists said they are worried about the patient safety risks due to the pressures they face in the midst of a funding crisis.

Pharmacy owners said they Pharmacy owners predicted patients will see longer waiting times, reduced opening hours, and reduced availability of some services.

Anil Sharma, a pharmacy owner in the East of England, said: “We are really feeling the strain in community pharmacy, and as winter approaches, it feels even harder to manage.

“My team and I are burnt out, stressed, and worried about how we’ll cope with ever increasing demand.

“Patients rely on us, yet every day the service we are able to offer is deteriorating, whether its medicines we are unable to source, or waiting times because the team are so overloaded: we need urgent support to be able to keep helping our patients in the way that we want to.”

Community Pharmacy England represents over 3,500 pharmacies in England and 55 senior local pharmacy leaders.

Pharmacy leaders said they extremely concerned about the ability of pharmacies in their area to continue serving patients this winter with 60 per cent believing that without remedial action, they expect to see more permanent closures of pharmacies in their area this winter.

Pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock announced this week that negotiations for the pharmacy funding contract will restart in the New Year.

Janet Morrison, Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy England, said: “Community pharmacies simply will not withstand another season of winter pressures, and if they are left to collapse, the impact on businesses and their staff, on patients, on the wider NHS, and ultimately on the nation’s health, will be unthinkable.

“Years of underfunding, with cuts of 30 per cent in real terms, have left community pharmacies battling for survival: they will continue to do everything they can to stay open and serve their patients, and they still have big ambitions to do even more to help people and the NHS in the future, but pharmacies now need urgent support.”