A bitter pill to swallow
MY LOCAL pharmacy is staffed by a cheery group of people.
Always smiley and helpful, always patient with what appears to be a permanent queue of mildly anxious customers, always willing to offer advice where they can.
There’s a discreet little room at the back where you can go for a chat or to have your blood pressure taken and, given I pop in regularly for a repeat prescription, we’ve come to know each other reasonably well.
But something’s been off there in the last few months.
The pharmacy has suddenly and inexplicably started to close for an hour over lunch – something which never used to happen and which has caught me out several times.
Meanwhile, a couple of familiar faces seem to have gone from behind the counter.
And where once I’d get three months’ worth of medicine per prescription, now it’s down to two – which, of course, bumps up the cost.
Of course in the chaos of life – and perhaps overshadowed by the permanent noise surrounding the funding crisis within the NHS – I didn’t join up the dots of these apparently random facts.
That was until this week when I popped in and picked up a leaflet from the counter which had the stark headline: Pharmacy Funding in Crisis.
It told me that the Government has reduced and then frozen funding to pharmacies since 2016.
‘We’re being asked to do more work for less money,’ it stated.
Then, under ‘implications’ it detailed how funding for the delivery of medicines – introduced during the pandemic – had stopped and patients may now be asked to contribute.
There were stock shortages thanks to Brexit, workforce issues and the effect of war in the Ukraine.
Mounting workforce pressures have also meant reduced hours and, in some cases, closures.
It finished with a stark warning: “Your team will always try to help you. Government neglect of pharmacy means that is becoming increasingly difficult.” Blimey.
I like to think I am up to date with the news, but this level of concern from professional people – not rabble-rousers or folk with political points to score – has blindsided me a bit.
It’s made all the more alarming because pharmacists and pharmacy staff powered through for us all during the pandemic to make sure access to medicines and services was maintained.
What’s happening now feels like a poor way to repay them.
So what to do to help?
Well, as the leaflet suggests, we can write to our MPS highlighting our concerns. It doesn’t feel like much, but I think we all need to make more noise about this.
It also asks that we ‘be kind’ to pharmacy teams, which suggests the poor folk dishing out the Calpol and the prescriptions are bearing the brunt of customers’ anger and frustration.
For me though, with a General Election on the horizon, it’s crucial we spread the word about this.
It’s critical the threat to this crucial high street service for so many of us is flagged, understood – and action taken to save it.