Pharmacy (Responsible Pharmacists, Superintendent Pharmacists etc.) Order 2022
Debate between Lord Grade of Yarmouth and Lord Brougham and Vaux(2 years, 7 months ago)
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Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con)
My Lords, the health or otherwise of independent community pharmacies can be judged by the rate of closures, which has been increasing over the last few years for a number of reasons, not least the overall deal with the NHS. That deal requires, for example, an individually owned community pharmacy to be deemed to have received the same discount on the purchase of drugs that Boots and the other big chains get on volume discounts. There is a serious crisis in this sector. Can my noble friend the Minister give us some idea of the rate of closure? If he does not have the statistics today, perhaps he could place them in the Library. Closure is an upward trend.
The Deputy Speaker (Lord Brougham and Vaux) (Con)
The noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, will be taking part remotely and I call her now.