Sector leaders have demanded that the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) publish its economic review into community pharmacy funding, saying that “it would be a scandal to keep that evidence buried secret”.
The long-awaited review, which officials said would “inform any future decision on the funding of community pharmacies”, was first announced in 2022 but had still not begun in February last year.
“We are now in 2025 and the results of this review, albeit concluded, are yet to be published to the sector by the authorities”, IPA chief executive Dr Leyla Hannbeck yesterday (February 11) said.
Read more: IN FULL: CPE sets out April to July ‘timeframe’ to deliver new contract
“The IPA went public in 2023 with the figure of the shortfall of £1.2 billion a year to the global sum [and] at the end of last year we announced that the shortfall has risen to over £1.7bn,” she added.
“We are therefore asking that the results of the economic review are published and our sector has a view of this as soon as possible,” she said.
“Surely the authorities must take these results, which they commissioned themselves, into consideration for the upcoming 2025/2026 funding cycle,” she added.
Read more: Long-awaited NHSE pharmacy economic review to begin in March
NHSE last month told C+D that it was still waiting for the analysis to finish but expected its conclusion early this year – it remains unclear whether it is still ongoing.
Reacting to the calls, NHSE told C+D that it is “committed to publishing this important report, but...currently unable to give any further details while consultations are ongoing”.
“All parties to the consultation have access to the details of the work to date,” it added.
C+D approached the DH for comment.
“Evidence buried”
Meanwhile the NPA today (February 12) joined the calls, demanding that the NHS and the DH “publish immediately a long-awaited independent economic analysis of pharmacy underfunding”.
Responding to “fears this won’t be published until after the government finishes current consultations on pharmacy funding”, it argued that the public “needs to understand the fragile nature of the pharmacy network before any new deal can be agreed’.
Read more: IN FULL: NPA sets out five contract demands - or collective action
NPA chair Nick Kaye added that “it would be outrageous to suppress publication of a government-commissioned report that is expected to lay bare the perilous financial state” of the sector.
“We need government-commissioned analysis on pharmacy funding to be published now,” he said.
“It would be a scandal to keep that evidence buried secret and leave MPs, pharmacies and the public in the dark,” he added.
Contract delays
In its announcement, the IPA also called for contract discussions to be “made transparent”.
And it demanded that “the sector has an opportunity to understand the process based on which the officials have arrived at the deal offered and have the opportunity to feed back”.
Read more: IN FULL: Long delayed funding contract negotiations finally open
“No timeframe has been indicated with regards to when these discussions will conclude [and] in the meantime, more pharmacies are struggling to survive on a daily basis,” Hannbeck said.
It comes as Community Pharmacy England (CPE) last week set out a “timeframe” of April to July 2025 to “conclude and implement 2024/25 and 2025/26 negotiations” for the community pharmacy contractual framework (CPCF).
Read more: Streeting and Kinnock say it will be a ‘New Year’ start for pharmacy contract negotiations
CPE yesterday (February 11) told C+D that the item in its 2025/26 draft workplan – which commences in April 2025 - “relates to work that goes into negotiations, analysis and any necessary implementation work”.
“Implementation work can go on for many months, depending on what is agreed, and work to influence government spending is ongoing,” a spokesperson stressed.
The negotiations for the 2024/25 contract were originally set to conclude 11 months ago in March.
Additional reporting by Ben Lee
