By Press Release
The government wants pharmacists to help ease GP workloads but the reality is that English pharmacies are already struggling to cope with the soaring costs of medicines and are in crisis.
The government is not reimbursing us for massive cost rises in prescription medicines or increases in energy costs and wages.
The NHS England budget for 2022/23 is approximately £200 billion, yet the budget for community pharmacy in England is just £2.59bn; it was set in 2019 and frozen until 2024. There are around 11,500 community pharmacies in England serving a population of 56 million people. On average each of them services about 5,000 people and dispenses an average of 7,300 prescriptions each month. The NHS pays £1.27p for each prescription item dispensed.
[DOES THIS ALSO ADD THE AMOUNT OF COST OF PRESCRIPTIONS?]
The remuneration to pharmacies is at its lowest level since the NHS was established in 1948. In England, the government spends £46 per head on pharmacy funding; in Wales and Scotland it is £66 and £67 respectively.
Since 2015, one in 20 pharmacies has closed, but in the most deprived areas, it is one in four. During the Coronovirus crisis of 2020/2021 the government classed pharmacies as an essential service, making advance payments to make sure we stayed open. However, over a six-month period last winter they took every penny back through the monthly payments from the NHS. Who else had to give the money back?
Pharmacists and their staff are being worked into the ground, exhausted and burnt out. The new Health Secretary, Therese Coffey, said last month: “We will ease the pressure on GP practices by expanding the role of community pharmacies.” She wants pharmacists to prescribe certain medications without a GP’s involvement.
The government constantly run campaigns urging patients to use their local pharmacy, rather than the doctor’s surgery, asking pharmacies to do more and more with no real money behind it. We are a frontline healthcare service, not only providing prescriptions, but all the advice and support that goes with it. A growing number of people use pharmacies every day as their first port of call when they are unwell or need healthcare advice, as pharmacists have a wealth of knowledge in many healthcare areas. Small pharmacies just cannot go on like this.
More than half of pharmacies are owned by large companies. The largest being Boots and Lloyds Pharmacies. Boots, the largest, is part of Alliance Healthcare, owned by an American company, Walgreen, which has been reported as being involved in tax avoidance schemes.
The cutbacks the Government are currently implementing are playing into the hands of all the large multiples who, once they have a monopoly in community pharmacies, will dictate the government’s pharmacy policy as they will have nowhere else to go. There are on-line pharmacies such as Pharmacy2u but these provide no face-to-face service or advice to patients. The results of these government actions will be a much poorer service at a significantly higher price, leaving a huge unfillable gap in healthcare in the community.
Finally, you need a flu vaccination every year because the viruses keep mutating. Every year the vaccination is adjusted to protect you against the latest flu variants. It takes about two weeks to give immunity and lasts about six months. This year it is especially important to get vaccinated because very few people had flu last year, so there is much less natural immunity against it. Flu jabs are free to all those aged 50 or over on March 31, 2023, care workers and those with a number of health conditions. At Yarmouth Pharmacy we hold regular flu clinics; call 760260 or call in for an appointment.