Pharmacy Closures

Lord Campbell-Savours Excerpts

Wednesday 1st July 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Speaker (Lord Forsyth of Drumlean)]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, is taking part remotely. I invite the noble Lord to speak.

[Lord Campbell-Savours (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, while we all will welcome this year’s very significant increase in funding, which greatly helps the viability of small chemists, we have a real problem in Cumbria, with its small towns, rural communities and limited chemist availability. Could we go further where the result of non-viability is problems in primary healthcare? Could we allow the remaining chemists greater flexibility and discretion in making changes to the strength, quantity and formulation in prescriptions? This could help to relieve the impact on primary healthcare services.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My noble friend is quite right to identify the very important role that pharmacies play in the move from hospital to community. That is why we are funding the rollout of, for example, independent prescribing from autumn this year. That will build on the success of Pharmacy First and the pharmacy contraceptive service, and provide much more local, on-the-spot care for common conditions. In rural areas, dispensing doctors can dispense medicines to patients who live more than a mile from a pharmacy. Also, online pharmacies can deliver medicines free of charge.