Almost £300 million of unaccounted for primary care recovery plan funding has not been spent on pharmacy, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) this week (April 2) told C+D.
In May 2023, the government revealed that it would invest “up to” £645m into community pharmacy services over two years – with the Pharmacy First service among the raft of measures announced under what NHSE called the primary care recovery plan.
Last month, pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock revealed that just £82m of Pharmacy First funding was spent in the first eight months of 2024/25.
Read more: ‘Not your money’: CPE admits £645m Pharmacy First cash ‘unlikely to be spent’
Now, CPE has told C+D that its “estimation of the spend from that pot was circa £204m in 2023/24 and will be circa £145m in 2024/25” – leaving some £296m of the cash unspent.
“Any remaining money will have been used by NHSE in other ways,” it added.
New cash “completely separate”
The news comes after CPE and the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) this week (March 31) announced the 2025/26 pharmacy contract, which will see the sector receive an extra £481m on 2023/24 figures – an 18.6% rise.
Some £215m has also “been secured to enable the [Pharmacy First] service to continue to grow” as part of the new pharmacy funding deal, they said.
“The primary care recovery plan funding – £645m – and the funding announced on Monday are completely separate and are unlinked,” CPE this week told C+D.
Read more: New Pharmacy First cash, bands and thresholds agreed
“In recognising that there would need to be time for Pharmacy First to get up and running and the funding only available for a fixed amount of time, CPE worked hard to use as much of the pot as possible,” it added.
“This included through a £112m write-off of previous funding over-delivery, £75m additional funding to support the expansion of the contraception and hypertension case-finding services, and an upfront payment for Pharmacy First,” it said.
“Full value”
Speaking on the new contract deal, CPE added that it “largely shaped the allocation of funding in the deal including the [£215m] Pharmacy First budget”.
“We proposed the addition of the baseline funding for the contraception and blood pressure services, as well as clinical service fee uplifts to ensure we use up all of the budget – but of course, that is dependent on full sector engagement in the service,” it added.
Read more: Just 13% of two-year Pharmacy First budget spent in 8 months
“We worked closely with the DH on spending forecasts and have agreed a framework to review and manage expenditure to ensure full value is driven out of the Pharmacy First funding,” CPE said.
“When meeting with the minister, he made it clear that it will make no sense if funding budgets are left underspent when the sector is struggling financially,” it added.
Announcing the new deal earlier this week, CPE said that it had secured “measures that should ensure that all the allocated funding for Pharmacy First will be spent on the sector in 2025/26”.
Read more: Funding breakdown: Write-offs, service payments and activity fees
Meanwhile in October, CPE chief executive Janet Morrison told Pharmacy Show delegates that CPE planned to “shake out” the DH’s wallets in negotiations.
“Don’t say you haven’t got the money,” Morrison said at the time.
But in September, CPE warned that NHSE had been “quite clear” on its multimillion-pound Pharmacy First investment – “if you earn it, you get it, but it’s not your money”.
Check the C+D site for the latest coverage on this developing story
