Hundreds of rural chemists face closure

Hundreds of rural chemists are to close despite ministers’ repeated assurances to Parliament that it would not happen. In private letters to Theresa May last August, the Chancellor and the Health Secretary warned that pharmacies would close due to a cut in a subsidy worth hundreds of millions of pounds to local chemists. Their warnings appear to be at odds with ministers’ repeated claims in the House of Commons.

RURAL chemists throughout the country are to close despite ministers’ repeated assurances to Parliament that this would not happen, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

In private letters to Theresa May last August, both Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, and Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, said up to 900 pharmacies would close because of a cut in a subsidy worth hundreds of millions of pounds a year.

Their warnings to the Prime Minister appear to be at odds with ministers’ repeated claims made in the House of Commons and in official documents that no closures were likely.

They also appear to confirm that Mrs May is concerned about the plans and had to seek reassurance from Mr Hammond and Mr Hunt.

Campaigners said the letters were a “smoking gun” and laid bare the Government’s indifference to saving rural pharmacies, especially given its decision to cut a subsidy for chemists in rural and deprived areas by £208 million in this financial year. It was this cut that first sparked concerns about closures that would force the sick and elderly to travel further for medicines.

In the letters, disclosed during a High Court challenge to the plans and then seen by The Telegraph, Mr Hammond and Mr Hunt warn that the subsidy cut will result in closures.

In a letter that was copied to Mr Hammond, Mr Hunt told Mrs May on Aug 2 that the cut would mean “500900 pharmacies will close”. He wrote: “We cannot know exactly how individual pharmacies will be affected ... there is a risk that some pharmacies may close as a result of these changes, although this has never been our objective.”

On Aug 11, Mr Hammond wrote to Mrs May to say he backed the funding cut to an “inefficient and over-subsidised market” and said chemists needed to move from “the traditional bricks-and-mortar business model”.

Last July, when campaigning for the Tory leadership, Mrs May visited Oliver Picard, a chemist threatened with closure in her constituency in Maidenhead, Berkshire. He later told local media that Mrs May “understands that pharmacies are part of the fabric of community life and will not simply wave through proposals to cut”.

Last October, the Government announced revised plans to raise the number of chemists given access to a special fund from 900 to 1,300. Then, weeks later, pharmacy minister David Mowat told MPs three times that no closures were likely.

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s shadow health secretary, said Mr Hunt should explain to MPs “why he was saying one thing to the Prime Minister while Mr Mowat was telling the House of Commons something different”.

Ian Strachan, chairman of the National Pharmacy Association, said: “This is a smoking gun. We have been warning for months that there are elements within Government that want to see the end of the community pharmacy network that has served so many patients so well for so long ... now the proof is there for all to see.