Pharmacy owners in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have voted in favour of taking collective action, the results of a ballot by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) have revealed.
About 99% of participating pharmacy owners said they were willing to limit their services unless funding is improved.
The NPA, who represents independent community pharmacies, said that it would likely recommend its members to take action from January, unless the Government offers the sector a suitable and sustainable funding deal before then.
The results showed that 63.5% of NPA members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland took part in the non-statutory ballot, representing 3,399 community pharmacies in total.
They voted overwhelmingly in favour of withdrawing services that they are not contractually required to provide and currently offer unfunded.
NPA chief executive Paul Rees told Pulse’s sister title The Pharmacist that he hoped the scale of the response – which represents around a third of the community pharmacy network – would bring attention to the sector’s plight, as similar action by the BMA has done for general practice.
The ballot results
- 99% of pharmacy owners said they were willing to limit their services in the interests of patient safety if improved funding is not forthcoming
- 97.8% voted to serve notice on opening hours above the minimum required by their contract – meaning fewer pharmacies will be open in the evenings and at weekends
- 93.3% voted to stop delivering medicines to patients’ homes for free if the service is not funded
- 96.1% voted to withdraw from locally commissioned services, including some local addiction support services, emergency contraception and stop smoking support
- 99.2% voted to refuse to co-operate with certain data requests above those required for patient safety and contractual minimums
- 96.8% voted to withdraw from supplying free monitored dose systems (medicine packs) that the NHS do not pay them to provide, other than those covered by the Disability Discrimination Act
Source: NPA
Mr Rees said that the ballot turnout likely increased following ‘markedly’ higher levels of ‘anger and desperation’ felt by pharmacy owners since the chancellor’s Autumn Budget last month.
He said the Government needs to ‘cover the cost’ of increased National Insurance employers contributions and national living wage increases for pharmacies.
In addition, the sector still does not have funding arrangements in place for the current financial year, and Mr Rees expressed concern that a contract for 2024/25 might not be reached at all.
He said: ‘With every passing day without there being a deal, members will be that much more enthusiastic about taking action.
‘Pharmacies need cash now because so many owners are clinging on by their fingertips.’
The NPA has sent the results of the ballot to the Government, and Mr Rees said he hopes it makes ministers understand ‘the level of anger and desperation amongst pharmacy owners’.
He added: ‘We want to ensure patient safety. So, the benefit of reducing services is A, it means that pharmacies are more sustainable. And B, it means that they’re not having to work at such an extreme pace that there is any risk for patient safety.
‘This is a case of dying or surviving, and we want to help our members survive. So in this current era of extreme austerity, it’s only by withdrawing some services, reducing some services, that a number of pharmacies will be able to carry on operating.’
NPA chair Nick Kaye said: ‘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.
‘Pharmacies desperately want to support their local communities with access to medicines and advice but have been forced into an untenable position by a decade of underfunding which has led to a record number of closures.’
And while the ballot is not statutory or binding, Mr Kaye noted that it reflected a depth of feeling that left the NPA ‘no option’ but to recommend action to its membership of pharmacy owners.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘Community pharmacy has a vital role to play as we move the focus of care from hospital to the community under the fundamental reforms in our 10 Year Health Plan.
‘Unfortunately, we inherited a system that has been neglected for too long and is no longer supporting the pharmacists we need to deliver for patients at a local level.
‘We are committed to working with the sector and would encourage all pharmacists to work with us to achieve what we all want – a service fit for the future.’
A version of this story was first published by Pulse’s sister title The Pharmacist
