Community Pharmacies: Devon and the South-west

Claire Young Excerpts

Tuesday 17th December 2024 Westminster Hall

[Rachel Gilmour]

I thank my hon. Friend for his not particularly concise, but erudite, intervention.

I will turn briefly to the funding model of pharmacies. Some 90% of a pharmacy’s income is derived directly from NHS funding, but when it comes to how that funding is allocated, the system is broken. Community pharmacies across the UK dispense more than 1.1 billion items a year and deal with shortage issues on a daily basis. The Department of Health and Social Care sets reimbursement prices in our system, but due to the reimbursement prices being so low and pharmacies being unable to compete on the international stage, the global market is now a safer bet for pharmaceutical companies than the UK. That means that people in the UK sometimes are not able to get the right medication due to shortages and that even when the DHSC puts together a price concession and allows for a greater reimbursement rate to allow UK pharmacies to compete for those life-aiding medications, there are extraordinary pressures on the NHS and the taxpayer. The realities of the funding model mean that community pharmacies are trying to push up water uphill using tools riddled with holes—in other words, sieves.

[Claire Young (Thornbury and Yate) (LD)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that in addition to the issues with the cost of drugs, the funding model for providing all the other services that pharmacies are expected to provide, including the Pharmacy First approach to avoiding GP appointments, needs addressing?

[Rachel Gilmour]

I will come on to Pharmacy First at the end of the debate, because I see it as the solution, rather than the problem.

The sector is trying its hardest, but without a fundamental overhaul of the system these NHS services, which are much-needed by patients and the public, may fall by the wayside into one of the following pits. There are the hours lost. When the money is not there, pharmacies cannot operate. As we see in many areas across the south-west and the UK, including in Tiverton and Minehead, hundreds of hours have been lost to temporary closures of pharmacies. According to the Company Chemists’ Association, pharmacies across the south-west have cut opening hours to the tune of 130,400 hours over just more than a year and a half by reducing their opening hours. According to Community Pharmacy England, from October 2021 to May 2024, in my constituency alone, more than 520 hours of pharmacy time were lost due to temporary pharmacy closures.

Although pharmacies operate all the services that I mentioned in the first part of my speech—and more, but I do not have time to go through them all—the closures take a toll on the GPs and A&E staff who might be someone’s next port of call if they cannot see their pharmacist. They take a toll on the NHS 111 line if the individual calls in, and they take a toll on the people who might not have any other free time in that day to take care of their health needs. Those lost hours add up. When pharmacies cannot provide those appointments or other services, it leads to bottlenecks elsewhere in the system.

Over the first three months of Pharmacy First, to which I will come shortly, pharmacies took 234 appointments out of the GP system simply by offering consultations for the seven applicable conditions. Pharmacies have fantastic potential to relieve pressure and provide new ways for people to access medical services, receive advice and so much more. Pharmacies cannot fulfil their potential if they are closed. The prospect of local pharmacies closing really does scare people. In a recent poll, 83% of respondents reported that they would be concerned about their local pharmacy closing. Data shows that closures are disproportionately taking place in the most deprived areas, with 50% of the pharmacy closures recorded in areas in the lowest three deciles of deprivation.