By Jeremy Meader
The 'Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England' was officially published on July 3, 2025.
This major policy document - following an independent investigation by Lord Darzi - focuses on shifting care from hospitals to communities, increasing digital technology, and enhancing preventative medicine.
Nine months on, and the Pharmacy sector has seen little to suggest that the government has even started to invest seriously in making this vision a reality.
The one-year settlement was given with one hand but taken back with the other. The increase in funding about offsetting the increases in National Insurance, minimum wage and business rates.
The government’s own economic review into the pharmacy sector showed we are underfunded by around £1.5 million to £2 billion a year.
This equates with every pharmacy in the country operating at an annual deficit of around £150,000.
Since last year’s funding, the sector has had no additional support. The Secretary of State and his team appear to understand the challenges the sector faces and see the potential. Sadly, there has yet to be anything other than warm words.
As we are about to enter the new financial year, contractors are left in limbo with no indication of how the next contract will play out. Indeed, negotiations have barely started. There seems to be little genuine prospect of any settlement before autumn.
The mood music does not sound great and provides little motivation to contractors to invest in their businesses. The optics from the government are poor at best.
In the meantime, the daily challenges just keep increasing – from fuel prices to minimum wage to concessionary lines.
Pharmacy owners are expected to keep dispensing an increasing number of drugs that cost more than the reimbursement price. For a sector already chronically underfunded, how can this make sense?
Generic manufacturers are withdrawing products from the UK market, which, from a global perspective, is becoming increasingly unattractive given remarkably low pricing. Patients are impacted, and this places greater strain on the sector.
Market data highlights that from September 21 to September 25, the number of pharmacies in England dropped by 800 from 11,200 to 10,400. Over the same timeframe, the number of items being prescribed rose by 14 percent, from 88 million to 100 million, reflecting our growing and ageing population.
The net effect is that the average number of items dispensed per pharmacy in England increased by 21 percent from 7,900 to 9,600 per month.
Pharmacies are busier than ever before, but their funding has - in real terms - decreased as their cost base has escalated.
Adding insult to injury, the sector is still treated as the poor relation in the NHS family. While GPs and dental practices get relief on business rates, pharmacies get forgotten. The sector deserves a level playing field.
I’ve said before, the sector needs to have one united voice; the number of representative bodies we have is damaging, from the perspective of presenting a crystal-clear sector view to government.
The BMA - love it or hate it - is a force to be reckoned with. When the BMA speaks, the government - whilst not always agreeing – listens and listens hard.
If ever there has been a time for unity across Pharmacy bodies, it must be now. Contractors need a collective voice and now is not the time for competing against one another. That approach is doomed to failure.
We all know the sector could take on more services; Pharmacy First in England could be expanded dramatically. Independent prescribers could relieve pressure on GPs. All of this is possible, but cannot be achieved without investment in colleagues, training, and premises.
Fundamentally, unless the NHS and Government are prepared to adequately invest in the sector, the prospect of delivering the vision set out in the 10-year plan is limited.
Hospital to Community can be powered by the pharmacy sector. And, without our sector, this vision simply will not become reality.
A vibrant community pharmacy sector with sustainable long-term funding is essential to provide patients with the care they need, deserve, and want, and at a much lower cost than A&E and GP options.
A united voice from Pharmacy bodies might just have a fighting chance of driving an improvement in the funding of the sector and in so going unlock the full potential of the sector.
Our government has made a remarkable number of “U-Turns” in the last 12 months. Pharmacy sector funding needs to be the next one! It might just be the catalyst for igniting the NHS 10-year plan.
(Jeremy Meader is Chief Wholesale Officer, Bestway Healthcare)
