A crisis in NHS funding led to a cut in pharmacy weekend opening hours of more than 20 per cent since 2022, according to new analysis by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA).
The study shows that one in six pharmacies (around 1600) have cut opening hours on weekends to patients due to chronic underfunding, with eight per cent choosing to shut entirely on Saturday and Sundays in the last four years alone.
Pharmacies warned that funding shortfalls have led directly to reduced access to medicines and health advice for minor ailments, particularly on Sundays as pharmacies are forced to cut costs to remain open.
They said that the sharp reduction in opening hours was forcing patients to travel long distances to get prescriptions or resort to overcrowded A and E and urgent care departments, where they can wait for hours to get treatment they could receive at their local pharmacy.
Analysis of NHS data on pharmacy opening hours by the NPA, which represents around 6000 independent community pharmacies in the UK, also found that:
More than 16,000 hours of pharmacy time on weekends has been lost in the last four years, with only 17 per cent of pharmacies still open to patients on a Sunday.
Kent, Birmingham and Lancashire have seen some of the steepest drops in weekend provision for patients, losing nearly 30 per cent of weekend opening hours since 2022.
Meanwhile, Cornwall has seen the highest percentage drop in Sunday opening since 2022, with 34 per cent fewer pharmacies opening on a Sunday compared to four years ago. This is followed by Oxfordshire and Chester and Cheshire West. The NPA have had reports of patients facing journeys of nearly an hour to reach their nearest pharmacy on a Sunday in some parts of Cornwall.
Kent, where 14 pharmacies no longer open on a Sunday since 2022 and Birmingham, where 14 pharmacies have also stopped opening on that day, have also seen significant drops in Sunday opening.
Meanwhile in Devon, pharmacies only operated one tenth of the opening hours on a Sunday compared to the average weekday.
Similar analysis by the NPA found that an average pharmacy in England was serving around 1000 more patients than it did in 2017, when the previous government first made the decision to cut pharmacy budgets, an increase of a fifth.
The NPA are warning that pharmacies have been left with little choice but to cut back their opening hours on weekends to patients in order to keep their doors open due to intolerable and unsustainable pressures on their budgets due to a decade of underfunding.
As the government prepares its funding offer for pharmacies for the next financial year, Ministers are being urged to keep their promise to deliver a sustained funding uplift that will stabilise the pharmacy network in England as well as reforming the broken contract between pharmacies and the NHS.
Around a third of pharmacies wrote to the Health Secretary Wes Streeting last month to warn that that they are being faced with ‘agonising decisions about what services to cut to their patients to keep their doors open’ when new costs hit in April such as increasing business rates.
This includes the potential of further cuts to weekend and late night opening hours.
Olivier Picard, Chair of the National Pharmacy Association said:
“This is yet more evidence that the pharmacy network in England is creaking at the seams after facing deep cuts over a number of years.
“Sadly the real losers are the millions of patients these pharmacies serve, particularly those in rural areas, who are forced to travel long distances or even go to hospital if they need a prescription or advice for a minor health issue on a Sunday or late at night.
“Pharmacists have huge potential to take away pressure from the rest of the health system but the reality is that they hanging on by their fingertips, raiding pension pots or remortgaging homes to stay open.
“Although we recognise the government took a step forwards last year, much of the uplift disappeared to cover increasing costs including National Insurance and National Living Wage contributions.
“Like the Government, we want to expand NHS services to patients but this can only happen with sustained and significant investment.”
