Dozens of pharmacies earmarked by Government as vital to their communities have closed their doors in the past two years, new analysis by the National Pharmacy Association, shows.
The £20 million Pharmacy Access Scheme was launched to protect pharmacies in areas where people do not have ready access to medication as well as areas with significantly higher than average levels of deprivation.
It offered an additional Government subsidy to “capture the pharmacies that are most important for patient access, those pharmacies where patient and public access would be affected should they close” according to the NHS.
But analysis of the current national register of pharmacies, maintained by the General Pharmaceutical Council, showed that at least 58 of the specially protected pharmacies listed in 2022 are no longer open despite this support.
The pharmacy network has shrunk under the strain of a decade’s budget cuts, potentially leaving patients with long distances to travel for vital medication or advice.
Closures under the scheme include:
Bishop's Lydeard Pharmacy, Somerset. Patients have 4 miles to travel or a 30 minute bus journey to get to their nearest alternative pharmacy, with other villages nearby also being served by the pharmacy in Bishop’s Lydeard before its closure.
Wheaton Aston Pharmacy, Stafford. Patients now have a nearly 6 mile journey to get to their nearest alternative pharmacy. The pharmacy also served nearby villages.
More than 1,250 pharmacies in England have been forced to close in the past decade, leaving some areas at risk of becoming pharmacy deserts.
Nick Kaye, chair of the National Pharmacy Association, said: “It’s horrifying that so many of the pharmacies singled out by the government as in need of special support to protect their communities are now shut for good.
“This analysis just shows the potentially devastating impact on patients if they lose their local pharmacy to chronic underfunding that has cut a swathe through local health services in the past 10 years.
“Pharmacies are a haven of invaluable health advice, medicine supplies and local expertise upon which millions of people rely but are still closing at an alarming rate. We have been calling on the government for emergency funding to halt the closures and unleash the power of the pharmacy network to drive care in our communities and this is still more evidence that they need to act now.”
Notes to editors
More details of the government's Pharmacy Access Scheme can be found here.
