North East and Teesside community pharmacies closing due to pressures
More than 400 have shut across England between 2019 and 2023
We are hearing how community pharmacies across the North East and Teesside are shutting due to pressures in the system.
There are warnings it will put more strain on other NHS services as further closures could be imminent.
Sami Hanna is a Gateshead pharmacist and represents community pharmacies across the North East. He said: "Pharmacies get most of their income from the NHS and the funding for that has been reduced by 30 percent over the last five or six years; costs have gone up, salaries have gone up, all the bills have gone up for pharmacies and they're businesses in their own right, so some are reducing their opening hours and some are having to just close.
"80 percent of the population are within 20 minutes of a pharmacy and as those numbers drop, they're not going to have pharmacies as close to where they live and the knock-on effect is that they'll end up going back to GPs and as we know, GPs are under a lot of pressure at the moment or they'll go into A&E which then clogs up that system as well.
"We need to be sustainable to be there for those patients and taking them out of the communities is going to have a devastating effect. It's another service that's being removed from the community and I think the effect on people will be devastating. I mean if you think back to the pandemic, alongside supermarkets, pharmacies were the other provider that were asked to stay open.
"Pharmacies are there. They're a skilled healthcare professional in the community and don't shy away from using them. You can pop in and see the pharmacist at any time. We're doing more and more and it's there for patients to use and I just hope that we can convince Government to fund it correctly so that resource can stay in the community where it belongs."
Hundreds of community pharmacies have closed in the last five years
The Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies said more than 400 community pharmacies across England closed between 2019 and 2023.
And it warned of a "tsunami of further pharmacy closures across the country" due to pressures in the system.
The association also called on the Government to "properly fund" its flagship Pharmacy First initiative - where patients with seven common conditions are encouraged to seek help from a pharmacist instead of their GP.
These conditions are sinusitis, sore throat, earache, infected insect bite, the bacterial skin infection impetigo, shingles, and uncomplicated urinary tract infections in women.
But the association claims the community pharmacy sector is already facing a £1.2 billion shortfall in funding.
Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies, said: "Our new analysis clearly shows that the loss of community pharmacies results in even more pressure piling up on hard-pressed GP surgeries.
"Our community pharmacy teams are working heroically to help their patients, but the odds are stacked against them.
"Every day I hear of pharmacists working excessive hours, losing money, falling into debt and being wracked by financial worries, uncertain if they will be able to keep the doors open. Some are having to turn to family and friends for financial help to keep going.
"We want to be part of the solution to many of the issues facing the NHS, but chronic underfunding, medicine supply challenges and a dysfunctional reimbursement system have created the perfect storm of pharmacy closures.
"If we continue down this path, we risk creating a tsunami of further pharmacy closures across the country."
She added: "If the Government is honest in its ambition to realise the full potential of pharmacy and reduce pressure on GPs, it needs to properly fund its Pharmacy First initiative and address the rotten contract which is infecting our sector, leaving many pharmacists struggling as closures spread.
"The consequences of a raft of further closures would be devastating. This is why today we are launching our new Fight4Pharmacies campaign to call on the Government to invest in community pharmacy and work with us to mend our broken contract."
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson added: “We have made up to £645 million of new funding available to support the expansion of community pharmacy services, which comes on top of the £2 billion pharmacies already receive per year.
“Pharmacy First will free up an anticipated 10 million GP appointments a year. It has been widely welcomed by the pharmacy sector and so far, 98% of pharmacies have signed up to deliver it.
“Four in five people live within a 20-minute walk of a pharmacy and there are twice as many pharmacies in deprived areas, making access to care quicker and more convenient.”