“Pharmacies are private businesses,” pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock yesterday (October 24) told MPs in a written parliamentary question and answer.
The comment came after Reform UK MP for Ashfield Lee Anderson asked whether health secretary Wes Streeting “plans to take steps to increase funding for pharmacies” and “what steps he is taking to help reduce the number of pharmacy closures”.
Kinnock answered by saying that “pharmacies are private businesses and decisions to close reflect many factors”.
“Patient access to pharmaceutical services remains good in England, with four in five people living within a 20-minute walk from a pharmacy and twice as many pharmacies in the most deprived areas,” he added.
Read more: Kinnock: Pharmacy reimbursement ‘does not aim’ to repay ‘as much’ as drugs cost
“Patients can also access approximately 400 distance selling pharmacies (DSPs), which must operate nationally,” he said.
Yesterday, Kinnock also responded to a question from Conservative MP for South West Devon Rebecca Smith, who asked what assessment Streeting had “made of the potential impact of community pharmacy closures on health outcomes…nationally”.
“We are aware of the reduction in the number of pharmacies in recent years and recognise that pharmacy closures can impact on local communities,” Kinnock answered.
“Thriving market”
Kinnock’s comments echoed those made by Conservative ex-pharmacy minister Dame Andrea Leadsom at the health and social care committee’s (HSCC) pharmacy inquiry in March.
At the time, Leadsom said that “pharmacies are private businesses” as she explained that the government would not intervene to stop a pharmacy closing.
She added that the community pharmacy sector continued “to be a thriving market”, saying that “things change” and asserting that “access remains good” despite “almost 400” net closures since the start of the 2023/24 financial year.
Read more: ‘Thriving market’: Minister upbeat about community pharmacy despite closures
She said that if a patient’s local bricks and mortar pharmacy closes or they are faced with “temporary queues”, they can simply “go online” and use a DSP.
Meanwhile, Kinnock told MPs earlier this week (October 21) that “community pharmacy reimbursement arrangements do not aim to ensure that every pharmacy is paid as much or more than it paid for every product”.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DH) “aims overall to reimburse as much as they were bought for, plus the allowed medicine margin”, he added.
And speaking at the Pharmacy Show in Birmingham earlier this month, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) chief executive Janet Morrison said that the government is “getting very alarmed” about pharmacy closures.
