‘Cough up cash for pharmacies’
MPs calling on the Govt to save vital services
WITH pharmacies facing financial ruin for stepping up to the challenge during the pandemic, MPs have ramped up pressure on the Government to save them.
Tory Chris Green said it is normal to want to “reduce coughs and colds” but that Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson should “cough up the cash for community chemists”.
Former minister Jackie Doyle-Price said pharmacies were assured by the Chancellor that they, like the rest of the NHS, would get whatever cash was needed to get through the crisis.
Ms Doyle-Price added: “Pharmacists are facing debts simply because they kept open. They had to supply their own PPE, invest in keeping shops Covid-secure [and] had to deal with staff absence due to sickness.”
The Tory warned of dire consequences if the Government does not write off £370million of advance payments given to chemists.
She said: “It will mean curtains for some businesses who acted in good faith after being promised the NHS would receive all the money it needed to fight the pandemic.”
Shadow Health minister Alex Norris said repaying the loans, an average of £32,000 per pharmacy, “could well harm patient care”. He added the total sum is 1% of the £37billion spent on the under-fire Test and Trace scheme. He told MPs:
“Rather than a 100th of the funding, I think community pharmacies probably had 100 times the impact.” Health minister Jo Churchill said: “I’m aware of concerns that funding isn’t enough. I need to work with the sector to look at things in much more detail.” Pharmacies in England dispense around one billion prescriptions per year and carry out over 48 million consultations, easing the burden on GPs and A&Es. Last year a probe found 72% of independent chemists could be losing money by 2024. The Mirror is campaigning to save family pharmacies.
LOCAL chemists play a vital role in protecting the nation’s health.
They not only dispense more than a billion prescriptions each year, their advice helps ease pressure on an over-stretched NHS.
One calculation suggests pharmacies saved almost 500,000 GP visits and 57,000 entries to A&E departments or walk-in clinics.
Yet this service is at risk because of a flawed funding formula introduced five years ago.
A survey found nearly half of pharmacy owners fear closure in the next 12 months.
The Government needs to find a way to save these essential parts of our communities.