Opinion: Pharmacy has been dealt a double whammy

Planned increases in the National Living Wage kicked in this month, offering a very welcome pay rise for the lowest paid but piling on additional unfunded costs for cash-strapped community pharmacies. 

Dedicated pharmacy staff deserve a decent wage, but it is unacceptable that the Government expects pharmacies simply to swallow yet another hike in costs for a sector which has lost more than £1.3bn in real terms over the past decade. 

A snapshot poll of NPA members showed that the total extra cost for many pharmacies could be £15,000-£20,000 a year, although of course the amount varies widely.

The NPA continues to fight for fair funding and provides practical support to maximise income and minimise costs. Right now we’re working with ITV on a new exposé of the sector’s financial crisis. 

More bad news...

Piling on the bad news on this front came the expected confirmation that the current contractual arrangements in England will roll over for an unspecified period, as negotiations continue. It is simply unacceptable to expect pharmacies to carry on like this.

It is time for a new funding deal that allows pharmacies to invest in staff and services. The first step would be to impose an immediate moratorium on clawbacks and guarantee year-on-year inflationary increases rather than allowing the current unjust and unjustifiable system to carry on even a month longer.

We need pharmacy funding to increase to 2.5 per cent of the NHS budget – the historical norm – and inflation-linked increases each year to stop the devastating scourge of pharmacy closures, which is having such a dreadful impact on the communities we serve.

Iniquitous

Clawbacks are one of the most iniquitous elements of the current arrangements. How is it acceptable to be told by a faceless system that you made “too much money” one or two years ago so you are getting a bill? 

How can it be acceptable that public funding is distributed through an arbitrary formula that no-one in primary care understands?

The mere idea that a pharmacy could have funding clawed back at any moment is a barrier to investment and forward planning. It undermines confidence to modernise and implement new clinical services.  

So it is extremely disappointing that the Government has once again imposed changes to the Drug Tariff to recover so-called excess margin.

Pharmacies are being asked to accept huge financial risks with no guarantee of support from their major funders. Once again it feels like community pharmacy is being treated like a second-class citizen.