£200m cut threatens one in four pharmacies

ONE in four high street pharmacies could close after ministers revealed a cut in their subsidies over the next two years.

David Mowat, the pharmacy minister, said taxpayers should not be propping up chemists that were clustered close to each other.

But campaigners have warned that the funding cut – which is projected to save the taxpayer £200million on the £2.8billion cost of pharmacies in the next two years – will force the elderly and sick to travel further for their medication.

Critics also claim that the move will put pressure on A&E departments, GP and hospital services.

The Department of Health says 40 per cent of pharmacies are in clusters, where three or more are located within 10 minutes’ walk of each other.

The average pharmacy receives a subsidy of £220,000 a year from the NHS – making up nearly 90 per cent of its income. But ministers are to withdraw a sum called the establishment payment that amounts to around £25,000 for those that prescribe high volumes of prescriptions. As part of the changes, ministers will also introduce performance-related pay.

Previously, ministers estimated they expect 3,000 out of 12,000 pharmacies to close although a newly published impact assessment from the Department of Health gives no figure.

Mr Mowat defended the changes, telling the Commons that ‘every penny saved will be reinvested in our NHS to ensure the very best patient care’.

He later told the Daily Mail it was hard to justify taxpayers subsidising clusters of pharmacies.

He pointed to a street in Leicester where 12 pharmacies were located within a few minutes of each other. ‘It is very hard to justify a half-mile stretch of road with 12 pharmacies on, taking significant funds out of the NHS,’ said Mr Mowat.

‘Some of that consolidation and merging is probably the right thing to do. I do not believe it significantly affects access. We are asking pharmacies to make efficiency savings. Those savings will make a contribution in areas of the NHS we are going to reallocate the money.

‘I don’t want to pretend that the efficiency savings we are asking for will always be easy – they won’t be easy in other parts of the NHS either. But we are also making progress in making the industry move towards being a service industry, not just a dispensing industry. I think it is very possible that some will close.’

Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said: ‘These myopic plans will further increase pressure on GP surgeries and hospitals that are already buckling under the strain of limited resources and unprecedented demand for services. More people will be forced to take unnecessary trips to their GP and even A&E.’

Rob Darracott, chief executive of trade organisation Pharmacy Voice, said the plans were self-defeating.

‘The public have made it clear that they expect their local pharmacies to expand their role in the community,’ he said. ‘Yet, despite this opposition, the Government appears hell-bent on pressing ahead.’

Izzi Seccombe, of the Local Government Association’s community wellbeing board, said: ‘Older and frail people rely on their local chemist not just as a place to get medicines, but as somewhere they can go to for informal health advice and information. If this lifeline was removed, it would mean more people having to potentially travel longer distances to GP surgeries and adding to existing pressures.’

‘Reinvested in our NHS’