Funding
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) has warned that it will investigate Pharmacy First claims, with payments only made to pharmacy owners whose claims are found to be “lawful”.
A pharmacist has received a six-figure loan from the Welsh government to open a new pharmacy with rentable consultation rooms for other “independent contractors”.
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has set out five “tests” for a funding deal and warned that it will “not hesitate” to recommend collective action if these are not met.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to review the ongoing issue of pharmacies dispensing at a loss after the topic was raised at PMQs last week, when one MP stated that a local contractor had been “forced to pay over 100 times more” for certain medications.
New caps on the maximum number of paid Pharmacy First consultations have begun this month, rising between 55% and 94% across different types of pharmacies.
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has warned that it will have “little choice but to advise pharmacies to take collective action later this month” if delays to the pharmacy contract negotiations continue.
NPA analysis has revealed that the £20 million Pharmacy Access Scheme funded by the pharmacy contract failed to protect dozens of isolated pharmacies from closing since 2022.
This month’s Category M price list is set to reduce pharmacy reimbursement by millions every month, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has warned.
CPE data shows 96% of pharmacy owners are “concerned” or “very concerned” that “their business may not survive this winter” as Sadik Al-Hassan MP is “eager to see this government avoid mistakes made during the past 14 years that have brought our sector to a crisis point”.
Health secretary says funding negotiations will begin “shortly in the new year” as pharmacy minister says the delay is because negotiations “did not get over the line before the general election”.
The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has begun an employment tribunal claim on behalf of pharmacists who were left in the lurch when their employer declared itself insolvent, it has revealed.
The Northern Irish Department of Health (DH) has announced that “an additional £15m” will be invested into community pharmacy and GP pharmacy by April 2027, “subject to additional funding”.
New analysis by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has found that the UK is “one of the worst countries in the OECD” for pharmacy provision.
CPE has expressed “severe frustration and intense anger” as it reveals that pharmacy contract negotiations are “stuck” between the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) and NHS England (NHSE).
The BMA has urged GPs and community pharmacies to “work in a joined-up way” after GP leaders last week voted “overwhelmingly” for pharmacy blood pressure checks to be terminated immediately.
The four pharmacy bodies have together urged the government to “shield community pharmacies from…increased costs and measures” introduced in the October budget.
The pharmacy sector has been left in limbo since its five-year funding deal came to end in April, but after delay upon delay to negotiations, are we any closer to a new deal?
Boots has signed a letter to the Chancellor stating that the “sheer scale of new costs” introduced by the budget – including a rise in employer national insurance contributions (NICs) and the national living wage – will “make job losses inevitable”.
Pharmacy collective action would put strain on GPs who are “already struggling to keep up with appointments”, a GP practice has told C+D.
Community pharmacists are set to meet with a Northern Ireland Office (NIO) minister to discuss the sector’s funding crisis after the National Pharmacy Association’s (NPA) ballot received near unanimous support in favour of collective action.