'Hanging on by fingertips' - Yorkshire pharmacist considering stopping services over mounting losses

Ashley Cohen, owner of Acomb’s Priory Pharmacy, said he had had to take out a £125,000 overdraft due to current Government funding failing to keep up with rising costs.

He added pharmacies could take collective action including stopping free prescription deliveries and evening and weekend trading until the Government starts talks on new contracts with increased funding.

A Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson said the pharmacy system had been neglected for too long and talks on new funding arrangements were set to begin shortly.

It comes as the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) said the Government was yet to start talks on a contract for the current financial year, due to end in March.

The industry body said pharmacies had been abandoned and left to work on existing terms following real-terms funding cuts of 40 per cent over the last decade.

The NPA added 700 pharmacies had closed in the last two years while others were forced to take out six-figure loans or hold back on investing in facilities and staff.

Almost all pharmacies balloted by the NPA, 99 per cent, backed collective action would would see them work-to-rule and only carry out core services until the issue is addressed.

Mr Cohen, who owns pharmacies in York and Leeds, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) his businesses and others were struggling to make ends meet.

He added the industry was now facing a cliff edge with costs including wages and National Insurance contributions set to rise from April.

Mr Cohen said: “Pharmacies are private businesses but they rely on NHS contracts, 90 to 95 per cent of our income comes from dispensing prescriptions, providing vaccines and performing public health functions.

“A number of pharmacies in and around York have already closed, the ones that are left are hanging on by their fingertips.

“Current funding means we’re selling prescriptions at a loss and if a pharmacy closes that just pushes the problems into other areas.

“In normal times if a pharmacy closed over the road I would have welcomed the extra business but now the increased volume of trade means my losses are higher.

“Businesses like mine are just small guys, we don’t have reserves of cash to draw on to stay afloat, this is my mortgage and my livelihood.

“We were due to have a new contract in April 2024 and now nine months on we’re saying enough is enough, ministers have said they hear us loud and clear but words don’t pay the bills.

“We understand that other sectors are under pressure but the since the election the Government has managed to resolve the junior doctors dispute and others, so we feel like we’re at the bottom of the pecking order.

“We want an urgent cash injection and to get the Government around the table, it’s unacceptable that pharmacists are having to re-mortgage their houses and borrow money from friends and family just to run an NHS service.

“Pharmacists aren’t a militant bunch, we’re healthcare professionals and we’re hear to support the public and we will continue to do so if we take collective action.

“But there’s things we do out of goodwill that we’re not funded to do and it would be better to have pharmacies operating on reduced hours than see them close permanently.”

The Department for Health and Social Care’s spokesperson said they were aware that the current system was not supporting pharmacists.

The spokesperson said: “We inherited a pharmacy system that has been neglected for too long.

“Community pharmacy has a vital role to play as we shift the focus of the NHS out of hospitals and into the community, and we will shortly be resuming our consultation with Community Pharmacy England to agree new funding arrangements.”