UK pharmacies in disaster as two-thirds face hazard of ‘imminent closure’ | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Two-thirds of pharmacies are at risk of “imminent closure”, with homeowners “remortgaging their own homes or raiding pension pots” to remain open. Thousands of pharmacies throughout England have joined forces to inform Health Secretary Wes Streeting they could have to chop providers inside weeks except he takes pressing motion.

Already struggling pharmacies face “a cliff edge of cost rises”, together with the problem of paying larger enterprise charges and an elevated minimal wage from April. The letter from 3,200 unbiased pharmacies describes the “desperate situation we face at the front line of the NHS”. They warn Mr Streeting: “Our pharmacies are in high streets, in villages, in communities and collectively we see millions of patients – your voters – every day.”

The pharmacists, who serve an estimated 15.5million sufferers, declare there’s a hole of greater than £2billion between NHS funding and the price of operating a pharmacy.

“Lives depend on our service,” they write.

“Our pharmacies are routinely subsidising NHS prescriptions – despite our work to save the NHS billions by driving down medicine prices. That is simply not right.”

The letter comes on the heels of a survey by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), which discovered that about two out of three pharmacies operated at a loss final yr.

The NPA claims eight pharmacies closed in England in January, with 95% telling the affiliation they don’t seem to be ready financially to assist the Government’s ambitions to maneuver care into the group.

Olivier Picard, who chairs the NPA, mentioned: “The fact that so many pharmacies operate at a loss should set off serious alarm bells in Government about the stability of medicine supply on which millions of people depend.

“Pharmacies serving millions of patients are at real risk of closure as a tsunami of new costs arrive, and are faced with agonising decisions about how they can continue.

“Without urgent action, millions of patients risk losing the most accessible part of the NHS – their local pharmacy. This is now a question of patient access and NHS resilience, not just pharmacy funding.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson mentioned: “Community pharmacies are a vital front door to the NHS, and we’re working hard to turn around a decade of underfunding and neglect that left the sector on the brink of collapse.

“This year, we increased community pharmacy funding to £3.1billion, which is the largest uplift for any part of the NHS over the last two years. This will help us give patients more care closer to home, freeing up GP appointments.

“Pharmacies are central to our shift towards community-based care, with services like free contraceptive consultations already reaching over 660,000 in the 12 months up to August 2025 – a 300% increase from the year before.”