Fairmans Pharmacy has warned other community pharmacies that the concerns raised in the Economic Analysis of NHS Pharmaceutical Services Report, published in March 2025, continue to be remain unaddressed.
The 90-page report, which was commissioned in October 2022, was released to community pharmacy on 28 March, 2025, a few days ahead of the funding announcement.
The pharmacy lamented that no one, including the community pharmacy negotiators, took the time to read the report.
"The funding announcement on the morning of 1st April 2025, was nothing like what we expected after we read the report."
An accompanying letter, signed by Fairmans director Julie Forster, said, "The hidden horrors of the report were held back from community pharmacy by the government, NHS England, Department of Health and Social Care and Community Pharmacy England.
"It is more than time they addressed all the issues and were held accountable. The fact that they did not address the issues in our funding last April has resulted in more pharmacy closures and more pharmacies reducing their hours," she added.
Fairmans lauded the community pharmacy professionals for withstanding the challenges over the last 10 years.
The report has stated that all 10,454 pharmacies were heading for closure, not because of poor management but due to the failure of the government to reimburse adequately for the services rendered by pharmacies.
The report pointed out that the remuneration for dispensing prescriptions falls way short of covering the cost of providing the service.
On the other hand, pharmacies had to cope with huge increases in the living wage, pensions, staff training costs, National Insurance, rent, and other expenses.
Pharmacists hoped the issues raised in the report would be taken into account while making the funding announcement.
They hoped that the settlement would consider the fact that the preceding year, pharmacies had received nothing due to general elections and a host of other factors.
"We pretty much expected immediate funding by way of a settlement for the missed year (with interest), plus an advance for the current year. Plus, new favourable terms going forward, an apology and assurance this would never be allowed to happen again."
What our negotiators agreed.
- An uplift of 19p per prescription item from £1.27 to £1.46 from April 2025. Not backdated.
- An uplift in the New Medicine service to £14 initial consultation and £14 for the follow up. Not backdated.
- Increase New Medicine service to include depression. Don’t know from when, but how have we got the time for this?
- Pharmacy First service increase from £15 to £17 for minor illness and clinical pathways. Not backdated.
- Pharmacy contraceptive service increased from £18 to £25 per consultation. Not backdated. Also expand this service to include emergency contraceptive consultation. Not sure from when but again how can we get the time for this?
- Hypertension over 40 years High Blood pressure Checks. Reduced from £15 to £10. If the patient then needs our overnight monitor (which cost us £1000), we will receive £50.85 instead of £45.00. They are also going to limit patients to the number of times they can have their blood pressure checked or, we do it for free otherwise we look like the bad boys!
- A promise they will adjust the discount margin for medicines. Not backdated.
- Write off of the governments full debt for the previous years failed negotiations.
- Write off of a fictitious amount of £193 million which they say is a historic amount for medicine margins from the pandemic! Say what? Where did they drag that figure from?
- A promise that other staff, excluding pharmacists, will be able to do some services. I guess more training and costs will come with this.
There were some other changes to be agreed upon, but all to include us doing more work in order to access the funds.
Forster criticised the Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS), designed to provide extra funding, "but only if we jump through all the extra hoops involved."
"I don’t think anyone who is not working in a pharmacy has any idea how long it takes to fill in the forms and submit them on the correct portals, to jump through all the hoops, to cost out the scheme in staff time. It is unbelievably sad," she said.
She also raised the issue of supplier discounts that the government takes away from pharmacies.
"I would like to know where they think these discounts come from. For example, as a group of six branches our monthly bill from Abbott Laboratories is £30,000 (£360,000 per year).
"Abbott supply us with Freestyle Libre for Diabetics. We receive not one penny discount!! We are subsidising the governments health service, and it cannot continue."
Fairmans' austerity plans
Forster claimed that in their 40 years of existence, they "never felt so let down by all our governing bodies".
The Newcastle upon Tyne-based pharmacy group has warned that if it does not receive any funding uplift by April, they will be forced to curtail their services.
Forster's letter pointed out that their immediate challenge is that by April, they will have to implement the increased living wage, increases in property rates, and other inflationary pressures.
Their six branches will close by 5 pm Monday to Friday, reducing over 74 hours per week, and remain closed on Saturdays.
Fairmans is one of the few pharmacies in the area that used to remain open on Saturdays, she pointed out.
The reduced opening hours are bound to cause inconvenience to patients, and for the staff, it will put extra pressure during opening hours.
It will help the pharmacy reduce the wage bill, National Insurance bill, and pension bill. It will also reduce the need for locums.
The pharmacies can cut down on heating and lighting costs and other trading expenses.
Forster pointed out that, as a knock-on effect, it will upset the patients inconvenienced by reduced opening hours, and staff will be infuriated by reduced pay.
This will force patients to approach doctors (who are already unavailable), increase crowding at A&E, and lead to life-threatening issues.
The government will have to step in to increase other services, at high cost, if pharmacies are not open.
This will also harm the career prospects of younger staff and locums, and Saturday closures will deprive students of the opportunity to train themselves for a pharmacy career.
She said she will be sending Fairmans' analysis of the NHS Pharmaceutical Service report, March 2025, to all concerned.
"The time for brushing this under the carpet has ended and needs to be acknowledged and addressed immediately."
