Key Summary
- 63% of UK independent pharmacies risk closure due to underfunding
- Surveys show most are unprofitable, many using personal assets to stay afloat
- Pharmacy leaders urge government to boost core NHS funding for survival
Two surveys by pharmacy organisations on Wednesday (27) show that 63 per cent of independent pharmacies in the UK could close by the next year due to insufficient funding.
The surveys were done by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) and the Community Pharmacy England (CPE).
They found that four out of ten pharmacies are struggling to pay the cost of patients’ prescription medication.
In the last one year, nearly half of pharmacy owners had been forced to remortgage their homes or raid personal savings to subsidise the cost of medicines for patients, with services being put at risk.
Pharmacy leaders feel that despite the raised funding last year, the condition continues to be precarious for independent pharmacies.
Even with the government’s latest funding increase in April, pharmacies still have a spending gap of £2.6 billion.
Pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock said, “The offer was not perfect by any means….the sector is under tremendous financial pressure.”
Around 90 per cent of an average pharmacy’s funding is provided by the NHS, which is supposed to cover the cost of core services such as dispensing prescription medication and running vaccination campaigns but this has historically been cut.
The CPE survey found that only 6 per cent independent pharmacies were profitable, while 51 per cent of them conceded that they are losing money.
Around 37 per cent are finding it hard to pay the wholesaler bills with the remaining 45 per cent having to sacrifice their personal assets to survive.
The CPE figures are from its 2025 Funding and Profitability Report, based on the Pharmacy Pressures Survey carried out between January and March 2025.
As the survey took place before the 2024/25–2025/26 CPCF funding settlement, pharmacy owners were polled again in April to reflect on its impact. This follow-up included 370 respondents representing 3,517 pharmacies
The NPA survey of 600 members found that 9 out of 10 pharmacies (94 percent) claimed that the new funding reforms was not helpful for their stability, and 63 percent of the independent pharmacies are planning to shut down next year, if there is no adequate government support.
This survey has also realised that 72 pharmacies in England have already been shut this year, which is two pharmacies shut in a week or ten in a month.
Hence, the pharmacy leaders are urging the NHS and the government to increase the core funding to secure the long-term sustainability of community pharmacy network.
“The NHS 10 year plan is an historic opportunity to finally shift care into communities and expand the role of community pharmacy in a way we have never seen before,” commentedTwo-Thirds of UK Pharmacies Risk Closure, Survey Finds, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association ( CPE).
“Rising costs across the board, combined with funding that was decreasing in real terms, have left pharmacy owners making impossible choices – for larger companies this has meant closures of pharmacy branches, and for smaller independent pharmacies we have seen enormous personal tolls, and increasing numbers of business insolvencies,” opined Janet Morrison, chief executive of Community Pharmacy England.
“Pharmacy owners should not be subsidising NHS services from their own pockets.”
“We can expect to see further steps taken by pharmacies to survive, with an inevitable and negative impact on patients and other primary care providers,” Morrison added.
