Community pharmacy’s national bodies, together with the four largest pharmacy chains in England, have issued their most direct warning yet of the urgent need for investment in the sector. 

In a letter to secretary of state for health and social care Steve Barclay today, the bodies have warned that permanent closures among the the country's 11,000+ pharmacies are likely and medicines supply at risk if no urgent action is taken. 

The letter from the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies, the Company Chemists Association, the National Pharmacy Association, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee as well as Boots UK Lloydspharmacy, Well and Phoenix UK warns that the 30 per cent real terms funding cuts that pharmacies have faced over the past seven years have left many businesses in a cashflow crisis. Urgent investment is now needed to help the sector to re-build capacity and sustainability. It says community pharmacy has ambitions to help support the wider NHS and patients, including through a fully funded Pharmacy First service. 

If the funding situation is not addressed, the sector is likely to move rapidly towards many permanent closures of pharmacies. The organisations say that once these closures start, they will be hard to stop, as the sector is now so fragile other pharmacies would struggle to pick up the slack. However, if the secretary of state chose investment, pharmacies can do much to deliver cost-effective solutions for patients and the NHS more widely.

In comments issued alongside the letter, PSNC chief executive Janet Morrison said: "Many community pharmacies are now struggling to survive and it could soon have very serious consequences for patients. Government now faces a choice about community pharmacy’s future. We believe that what is right for pharmacies is right for patients and right for the wider NHS.”

“It is not just hospitals and GPs that are under pressure, it’s our pharmacies as well," Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of AIM said. "The secretary of state must act urgently as our sector is coming under so much pressure in all sorts of ways that we simply cannot continue like this. Pharmacies are struggling to keep their heads above the water as they are simply struggling to pay their bills. If the secretary of state and NHS decision makers want that accessible care to continue to be there for vulnerable patients then they must act with urgency.”

CCA chief executive Malcolm Harrison said: “Not investing in the sector will mean the continued erosion of service, and ultimately the permanent closure of many more community pharmacies, which will add to the already pressurised health system.”  NPA chair Andrew Lane said: "We are showing the Health Secretary that we are united in our determination to take the right route – one that unlocks the full potential of community pharmacy and helps support the NHS more widely.”

The full text of the letter reads: