Community Pharmacy England has said it is unlikely the Government and NHS England will be in a position to reconvene talks on the 2024-25 community pharmacy contractual framework before September.

In a statement, pharmacy’s negotiator said it expects the Treasury will spend the next few weeks working with all Government departments to determine how much funding is available, including for the NHS and primary care.

CPE chief executive Janet Morrison (pictured) warned the delay will be “extremely difficult” for pharmacy owners as they continue to battle to keep their businesses open. She insisted the negotiator continues to warn the Government and the NHS about the risks of pharmacy closures and “the urgent need to intervene”.

“The impact on patients and the wider NHS should pharmacy businesses be allowed to collapse would be catastrophic,” Morrison said.

She added: “Work to highlight the critical state that community pharmacies are in is ongoing, both in our discussions with officials and through our wider political influencing programme.”

CPE said its analysis “very clearly shows that current CPCF funding is not sufficient to cover the myriad costs pressures that pharmacies are facing” and that has left many pharmacies “teetering on the edge of collapse”.

CPE has also been working with independent consultancy firm PA Consulting to produce an economic analysis of funding requirements in community pharmacy, cost benefits of its value and future investment in the sector.

Talks on the 2024-25 contract had opened between CPE and the Conservative government but were interrupted by the general election. CPE insisted it has made “urgent representations” to the new Labour government and NHSE about Pharmacy First thresholds and wider funding issues in community pharmacy and has written to the health minister Wes Streeting, chancellor Rachel Reeves and pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock.

Morrison also urged LPCs and pharmacy owners to write to their MPs using the CPE’s updated toolkit.