Four pharmacy bodies have written to the health secretary Wes Streeting to warn him the government’s national insurance and national living wage increases will push already stretched pharmacies into insolvency if it fails to alleviate those cost pressures.

The National Pharmacy Association, Community Pharmacy England, Company Chemists’ Association and Independent Pharmacies Association yesterday told Streeting (pictured) there was an “urgent need to shield” pharmacies from the Budget’s measures to stop more of them closing and hindering patient access to care.

The bodies warned the rise in national insurance will cost pharmacies an estimated £50 million while national living wage increases could cost them as much as £152 million. Labour has still not met CPE to agree a community pharmacy funding settlement for 2024-25 and beyond.

Warning pharmacies are “facing extreme financial pressures after a decade of real-terms cuts,” the bodies said: “Pharmacies have already absorbed significant NHS activity increases against this backdrop.

“Even before the budget announcements, community pharmacies required a substantial real terms uplift merely to prevent further damage to the network.”

They warned the latest increases “will further undermine the already perilous position facing the pharmacy network” and insisted more pharmacies will be forced to reduce their opening hours and services or close permanently.

An overwhelming majority of NPA members recently voted to support work-to-rule action in protest at poor funding. The bodies told Streeting they “wholeheartedly” agreed with Labour’s ambition to continue the last Conservative Government’s ambition to move care into communities but said pharmacy needed “to be put on a sustainable financial footing” to achieve that.

“A settlement in the current year that does not cover the increased costs community pharmacies are facing, including measures outlined in the budget, and address the ongoing recovery of margin, will hinder the reform the Government wants to achieve,” the bodies said.

“Instead, (we will) see community services facing further decline. We must prevent this from happening.”

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