Community Pharmacies: Devon and the South-west

Caroline Voaden Excerpts

Tuesday 17th December 2024 Westminster Hall

[Dr Danny Chambers (Winchester) (LD)]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Minehead (Rachel Gilmour) for securing this debate, which is very timely because just yesterday the hospital in Winchester declared a critical incident. It has had so many infectious patients come in with various flus, the norovirus and other infectious diseases that it is short of beds. It has asked people to seek other healthcare arrangements, and has specifically mentioned pharmacies as a place to go for advice.

Alongside providing more social care packages to free up beds, one part of the solution to prevent the yearly NHS winter crisis is to increase the delivery of flu and covid vaccinations well before winter. We have seen that, with the right Government support, our community pharmacies are well placed to deliver vaccinations; they are not just accessible but convenient, and they deliver care right in the heart of a community.

I have been to many pharmacies in and around Winchester, including the Springvale pharmacy in Kings Worthy, the Wellbeing pharmacy on Winchester High Street and the Colden chemist in Colden common. I have spoken to the staff who work there and have heard at first hand that the NHS funding model really isn’t working for them. I was saddened to hear that, although those pharmacists are passionate about their work, they struggle to see how they will remain open for the next 12 to 24 months.

[Caroline Voaden (South Devon) (LD)]

Pharmacies in two of the major GP surgeries in my constituency, Leatside in Totnes and Compass House in Brixham, have closed in the past year because the private operators could not make a profit. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is urgent that we revise the funding model for prescriptions so that pharmacies, particularly in GP surgeries, can survive?

[Dr Chambers]

I completely agree. As other Members said, in some cases it costs pharmacies money to dispense NHS prescriptions. That is clearly not viable, especially given that the core NHS funding for pharmacies has been reduced by about 30% since 2015.

Some healthcare providers are really struggling and are on the brink of financial viability. They include pharmacies, hospices and some social care providers. The increase in national insurance contributions will cost the pharmacy industry approximately £50 million extra this year. Once again, we urge the Government to exempt some healthcare providers from the increase in national insurance or potentially repay that money through another mechanism, because it could be a death blow to social care providers, pharmacies and hospices that are on the brink of financial viability.

I thank hard-working pharmacists, such as the hon. Member for North Somerset (Sadik Al-Hassan), who really are part of the community. People come in; they trust them. Pharmacists have a really good personal relationship with their communities. Through the work they do and the hours they work, pharmacies are a lifeline for millions. They provide nearly a third of consultations outside normal working hours. They are often the only point of care for people living in rural areas. As our population grows older and faces increasingly complex health challenges, pharmacies must be empowered to step up and deliver the reliable, flexible care solutions that our communities desperately need.

As we talk about the strain on the public finances and the NHS budget, we cannot be tempted to see primary care—GPs, mental health provision, pharmacies or dentists—as a cost to be cut. We must invest in them and ensure we keep them viable, because it is always more cost-effective to treat people in their communities and prevent them from getting ill than it is to treat them when they end up in hospital.