Pharmacy owners to reduce hours and make fewer home deliveries of medicines unless there is better funding
Pharmacies have said they will halt a number of services within weeks, including the end of free medicine deliveries and extended opening hours, unless the government drastically boosts funding for the sector to stem an "escalating crisis".
In a high-turnout ballot run by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), which represents independent community pharmacies, 99% of pharmacy owners said they were willing to limit their services in the interests of patient safety if improved funding was not forthcoming
Dr Leyla Hannbeck, the chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association, said: "The community pharmacy sector is in an escalating crisis with a £1.7bn shortfall in its funding. This has got worse with the hike in the employer NI resulting in £12,000 extra costs annually for our members. As healthcare professionals, we believe that patients must not be caused suffering by any withdrawals of our members' valuable and vital professional services."
The association said that over the past decade more than 1,250 pharmacies had closed, 700 of them in the last two years alone.
Comments