Dozens of England’s “most isolated pharmacies” backed by a scheme to protect them have closed since 2022, new National Pharmacy Association (NPA) analysis revealed last month (December 27).
The £20 million per year Pharmacy Access Scheme (PhAS) was introduced in 2016 to protect pharmacies in England situated one mile or more from another pharmacy by road from the “full effect” of the funding cuts - as long as they were not in the top 25% best-performing businesses according to dispensing volume.
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Funded through the community pharmacy contract, it was updated in 2022 with 1,445 eligible pharmacies.
Eligible pharmacies receive an extra payment as they are deemed “pharmacies where patient and public access would be affected should they close”, according to the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA).
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Department of Health and Social Care (DH) guidance set out that the 2022 scheme was launched to focus on “areas that may be at risk of reduced access, for example, where a local population relies on a single pharmacy”.
But a 2023 review of the government’s pharmacy policy commitments in England found that despite its claims that pharmacies that received PhAS payments were “less likely to close” than those that did not, there was “insufficient evidence” to support its impact.
“Devastating impact”
The NPA’s analysis of the General Pharmaceutical Council’s (GPhC) national register of pharmacies revealed that “at least 58 of the specially protected pharmacies listed in 2022 are no longer open despite this support” .
NPA chair Nick Kaye said it is “horrifying that so many of the pharmacies singled out by the government as in need of special support to protect their communities are now shut for good”.
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“Pharmacies are a haven of invaluable health advice, medicine supplies and local expertise upon which millions of people rely but are still closing at an alarming rate,” he added.
“This analysis just shows the potentially devastating impact on patients if they lose their local pharmacy to chronic underfunding that has cut a swathe through local health services in the past 10 years,” Kaye said.
Inherited “neglected” system
A DH spokesperson last month (December 27) told C+D that the PhAS has not been updated since 2022 and said it “inherited a system that has been neglected for too long and isn’t supporting the pharmacists we need to deliver for patients at a local level”.
“Community pharmacy has a vital role to play as we shift the focus of the NHS out of hospitals and into the community through our 10 Year Health Plan,” they added.
“We will work with the sector, making better use of the skills of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, to build a service fit for the future,” they said.
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Pharmacies eligible for the 2022 PhAS had to have a dispensing volume between 1,200 and 104,789 in 2019-2020 and be more than one mile from the next nearest pharmacy or more than 0.8 miles from the nearest pharmacy if in a deprived area, the NHSBSA said.
But distance-selling pharmacies (DSPs), local pharmaceutical services (LPS) pharmacies, pharmacies with restricted access such as beyond airport security and those in areas with “dense provision” of pharmacies were excluded from the scheme, it said.
Meanwhile, NPA analysis last month found that the UK is “one of the worst countries in the OECD” for pharmacy provision.
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In November, C+D reported on analysis of Office for National Statistics (ONS) data that found pharmacies “will cease trading” within 15 years if nothing is done to stop closures as they are among the “top 10 endangered businesses”.
But the previous month, the pharmacy minister told MPs that community pharmacies are “private business” and their “decisions to close reflect many factors” amid concerns about the declining numbers in the sector.
And in May, NPA analysis found that the number of pharmacy closures was 53% higher than the previous year – with 177 bricks-and-mortar pharmacies closing between January and April 2024 compared to 116 in the same time period in 2023.
