Community Pharmacies

I beg to move, That this House has considered the future of community pharmacies. It is always a pleasure to see the Minister in his place. I know how committed he is to his brief, and I am grateful for the conversations we have had on a number of important issues. The timing of this debate could hardly be better, coming as it does in the wake of the Government’s announcement just before the weekend. That announcement provides the perfect context within which to couch my remarks. I would like to believe that I have developed a reputation for constructive criticism, and I hope to offer a fair-minded but frank scrutiny of the Government’s plans for community pharmacies. There are positive moves, which I welcome, but there is also considerably further to go. It is clear that the national picture for community pharmacies is one of an incredibly fragile system, and I am sure that much reference will be made this morning to the damning headline statistic that since 2016, over 1,000 pharmacies have been lost across England. Funding was cut that same year and remained flat in cash terms until 2024, even as the volume of NHS pharmaceutical care and the cost of providing it surged.

I congratulate the hon. Member on securing the debate. When I met the Minister in April, we were going through the consultation on the pharmacy contract, but we are yet to hear any announcement. Does the hon. Member agree that the pharmacies we all rely on need certainty about when their contract negotiations and the associated funding will be completed?

The hon. Member makes a good point, which I shall return to in due course. The community pharmacy network has had to absorb real-terms cuts of 30% in Government funding. For most community pharmacies, NHS funding accounts for 90% to 95% of their annual income. That is simply not a sustainable business model; it is a slow strangulation. The Government’s own independent economic analysis, published as recently as March this year, found the gap to be £2 billion a year. More recently still, the Government have admitted that pharmacies in England were funded £800 million less in real terms in 2025-26 than they were a decade ago. It is important to be clear that those are the Government’s own figures. Against that backdrop, I welcome the funding settlement for 2026-27.

As a fellow south-west MP, will the hon. Lady welcome the fact that the Minister came to the Concord pharmacy in Little Stoke in my constituency just last week to make the welcome announcement about £340 million more to boost our vital community pharmacies? Does she agree that when the Minister winds up, it would be helpful for him to share how he finds these visits valuable in forming his work in the Department and showing him more about the support that pharmacies need?

As I said at the beginning, the Minister is a very hands-on Minister, and I am sure he finds every visit absolutely fascinating. The community pharmacy budget will increase by 10.3% to £3.636 billion. The introduction of independent prescribing into some pharmacy services later this year is a positive step, as are the measures aimed at stabilising the volatile medicines supply system. In the spirit of constructive opposition, I will certainly give credit where credit is due, but we must be honest: the settlement is still far short of what pharmacies need to keep their doors open. Over 600 branches closed last year alone.

Pharmacists such as Max, who runs South Petherton pharmacy, are taking care of constituents from the other side of my constituency. Our pharmacies in rural areas are expected to do more and more with little extra help. Does my hon. Friend agree that alongside greater funding, we need to see the Government use the NHS workforce plan to properly expand the pharmacy workforce?

As a rural MP myself, I certainly have a grasp of what my hon. Friend addresses, and I shall come to that in a minute. Analysis conducted by the Independent Pharmacies Association shows that an average pharmacy dispensing around 10,000 items a month will face a shortfall of approximately £56,000, even after the settlement. Without a commitment to continued above-inflation funding increases year on year, patients will face an acceleration of service reductions and closures. Those closures will fall hardest on communities such as mine and that of my hon. Friend, as I will explain. My constituents have lived with these difficulties. At a cursory glance, there are 16 pharmacies across Tiverton and Minehead, serving a population of approximately 91,200. On average, they dispense 113,000 prescriptions every month because they are busy, essential, community institutions. Yet a survey of 3,000 people in Tiverton, conducted by a local GP surgery, found that 30% of respondents were unable to find a pharmacy. That should simply not be the case in 21st-century Britain. It cuts to the heart of a fundamental truth about rural healthcare and much more that successive Governments have neglected to confront.

I recently visited Weldricks pharmacy in Rossington and saw the amazing work done by the team there. My constituency is in quite a rural area and provision is patchy. Does the hon. Member agree that it would be good to map all community pharmacies, understand where there are gaps, and make targeted interventions? That would ensure provision for the number of people living in that area.

I agree that a strategic approach is always best. The distances, the limited public transport and the dispersed nature of rural populations mean that the closure of a single pharmacy can represent a genuine healthcare crisis for thousands of people. I see that directly in my constituency; the loss of a fully fledged pharmacy with all its associated services in Bishops Lydeard in March 2024 was a blow to the community. In its place there is now a dispensary, but solely for patients of the surgery. The same thing happened in Norton Fitzwarren. Transport woes, which so often hold back my constituents, sever a vital link to the health service. Jhoots, the previous provider of pharmacy services in parts of Tiverton and Minehead, had operated poorly for some time. Constituents lamented the missing medicines, unexpected closures and queues stretching down the street. Under the new stewardship of Allied Pharmacies, things have improved markedly. That is a testament to what good management and proper investment can achieve.

My hon. Friend raises the spectre of Jhoots, which resulted in the closure of the Bridport and Lyme Regis pharmacies in my constituency. Jhoots exposed serious concerns around contractual failures, unsafe practices, staff treatment and service continuity, leaving staff in my constituency relying on food banks. When I met the Minister, he told me that officials were reviewing whether additional regulatory powers were required to prevent another Jhoots scandal. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is important for the Government to bring forward legislation to deal with such a scenario?

I have had that discussion with the Minister, who reassured me that the Jhoots scenario has been at the front of his mind and he will seek to resolve it. There is also the question of business rates. It seems manifestly unfair that community pharmacies, which are frontline NHS providers in every meaningful sense, are required to pay full business rates, while GP surgeries and dental practices do not face the same burden. I ask the Minister how that disparity can be justified and whether the Government intend to address that. Pharmacies are the engine of community care and offer an opportunity that the Government have not fully grasped. The thrust of the Government’s health strategy has been care in the community, devolving healthcare back to local settings, with neighbourhood health structures and a shift away from hospitals to primary and preventive care. All of that is absolutely right but cannot be delivered without the community pharmacy network. Pharmacies are already doing the work the Government say they want the NHS to do: local, preventive, accessible care, delivered by trusted professionals in the heart of communities. The funding must match the words.

The hon. Member is making a powerful speech about the importance of community pharmacy. There are pharmacies on the edge of my constituency, serving Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. The inconsistency of integrated care board delivery can create problems for local communities trying to get medicines. Does the hon. Member agree that we need consistency of approach?

I assure the hon. Lady that some of the most frustrating conversations I have are with my local ICBs. Properly resourced pharmacies could release a staggering 51 million primary care appointments through an expanded Pharmacy First service, prevention services and a greater role in managing long-term conditions. That is 51 million appointments freed up in general practice, allowing more people to escape the infamous 8 am scramble. Pharmacies often meet people where they are, offering more accessible services to those who might not otherwise engage with the health service at all. They are arguably the most accessible arm of the NHS.

I have been fortunate to have a pathfinder within the independent prescribing programme in my constituency. Its data shows that only 5% of patients who use the independent prescribing pathway need to be referred to their GP, so it is exactly as she says: there are huge savings to be made. I must push the Minister, because Community Pharmacy England has said that it is “not persuaded that sufficient investment is being made to enable the full and effective introduction of independent prescribing.” Does the hon. Lady agree that the Minister should look at that carefully to make sure that we are getting as much as we can out of community pharmacy?

I shall come to just that point in a minute. This sounds strange now, but I am going to say it: take obesity, for example. One in three people in the UK are currently classified as obese. Obesity is estimated to cost the NHS over £11.4 billion a year, with wider societal costs to the tune of £74 billion a year. Community pharmacies are ideally placed to provide wraparound support for those prescribed weight-loss medicines as part of an NHS-commissioned service, but they need the resources and the commissioning framework to do so. There is one aspect of this debate that receives insufficient attention, and I want to raise it briefly. The ongoing situation in the middle east has hit the pharmaceutical supply chain as much as any other sector. There were a record 219 price concessions announced for community pharmacies in May alone, with further negotiations still ongoing. The cost of medicines has risen sharply. I understand that some cancer drugs have reportedly seen elevenfold increases. Crucially, medicine shortages and record-high price concessions reflect an instability in the supply chain that is being intensified by geopolitical pressures. I put it to the Government that the growing medicine supply crisis poses serious risks to Britain’s preparedness and resilience.

I met with a pharmacy manager in Denton who told me that NHS reimbursement for medicines is not keeping pace with rising costs. They are dispensing medicines at a loss, paying more to suppliers than the NHS then reimburses them and absorbing the shortfall. Does the hon. Lady agree that independent pharmacies need to be fairly funded if they are to continue acting as the front door to the NHS?

I agree wholeheartedly. I want to turn to two issues that I consider to be the systemic failures underlying all others: workforce and integration. On workforce, the community pharmacy network lost 3,000 full-time equivalent pharmacists between 2021 and 2025. That is not a sustainable trajectory. There is a specific incoherence in current policy that I must name. If one arm of the national health service is funded to recruit pharmacists away from community pharmacy while community pharmacies are simultaneously expected to take pressure off the same system, that is not joined-up workforce planning; it is quite simply the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. The introduction of independent prescribing is laudable and long overdue, and I note that it is expected to come later this year, but I ask for more specificity from the Minister. What is the Government’s current timetable for making independent prescribing a routine, commissioned part of NHS community pharmacy services? If we train pharmacists to prescribe and then fail to commission services that let them do so in community settings, we will have wasted a major opportunity, and we will have trained a cohort of professionals whose skills are systematically underused. On integration, Pharmacy First will not reach its full potential if GPs, hospitals, NHS 111 and patients all have a different understanding of how it functions. The incongruence within the system is hobbling pharmacy practice. What is required is proper system-wide integration, with pharmacies recognised as a fundamental pillar of our NHS. As the NHS modernisation Bill progresses through Parliament, that must be recognised. Pharmacies are already doing the work that the Government say they want the NHS to do. They are the first port of call, the most accessible point of contact and the trusted face of healthcare on high streets and in rural communities across this country. The Government have taken some positive steps, and I reiterate that the 10.3% uplift is very important. The direction of travel towards community care, independent prescribing and neighbourhood health is right, but direction without sufficient resource is just aspiration.

Although I also welcome the funding uplift, community pharmacies were already in crisis after years of real-term funding cuts, especially in rural areas. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government need to scrap unfair budgetary pressures on community pharmacies and commit to a funding model that will put them on a sustainable financial footing for years to come?

Of course, I fully agree with my hon. Friend’s comments, and I laud her good work in her constituency. I urge the Government to commit to above-inflation funding increases year on year in order to close the £2 billion gap identified by their own independent analysis, deliver proper integration across the NHS and address the workforce crisis before it becomes irreversible. Pharmacies are ready, they are willing and they are already delivering. The question is whether the Government will match that commitment with the funding and the strategy that the sector and our constituents deserve. I look forward to hearing hon. Members’ contributions.

Order. I remind Members to bob if they wish to be called. In order to get everybody in, we will have an informal time limit of three and a half to four minutes. I will call the Front-Bench speakers at 10.28 am.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Tiverton and Minehead (Rachel Gilmour) for securing this important debate on the future of community pharmacies. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the importance of community pharmacies across the country, especially in Wolverhampton and Willenhall. They are true anchors of support for my communities, providing not only specialist healthcare services but a friendly, familiar face for so many residents.

Will the hon. Lady join me in paying tribute to the many people who work in community pharmacies, including my constituent Sadie Jefferson, who is 90 years old and retired last week from the community pharmacy where she had worked for 75 years? Hers is an example of the commitment and effort in community pharmacies right across the United Kingdom.

I extend my sincere gratitude and congratulations; 75 years working in a pharmacy is incredible. At the other end of the scale from Sadie, my very first Saturday job was in pharmacies in Wednesfield and Willenhall in my constituency. I also extend my thanks to the pharmacies, dispensers, frontline shop staff and delivery drivers whose dedication underpins that support. Community pharmacies are among the most accessible and trusted parts of our NHS.

Boots closed its pharmacy in Thames Ditton in 2024. An application was put in for another one, but it was decided following a pharmaceutical needs assessment that the need was met by the chemist. However, elderly residents have a 20-minute-plus walk to get to the chemist, and the high street around it has pretty much collapsed. Does the hon. Member agree that, beyond macro PNA figures, local circumstances are relevant?

I agree. The absence of a community pharmacy leaves a vacuum on the high street that is felt by residents. I am sure that Members across this Chamber will appreciate that factor as well. Some 1.6 million people walk through a pharmacy door in England every day; they are embedded in our communities. That is why I welcome the Government’s recent £340 million funding agreement for the sector and the expansion of Pharmacy First. It builds on a service that has already delivered more than 3.3 million consultations in the past year alone. Crucially, from autumn 2026, pharmacists with independent prescribing qualifications will be able to assess patients and prescribe medicines directly on the NHS. It is a significant step forward to deliver faster care right on our high street. However, if we are serious about shifting care into the community, improving prevention and delivering on the ambitions of the NHS 10-year health plan, we must be honest about the challenges that the sector has faced. From 2010 to 2015, community pharmacy funding broadly kept pace with demand, but from 2016 onwards it was cut and then largely held flat in cash terms through 2023 as costs and workload increased. That resulted in a sustained real-terms decline of around 20% to 25%. Since 2024, funding has begun to rise again, but primarily to stabilise the sector after years of underinvestment, with a significant gap still existing between funding and actual costs. Across England we have lost nearly 1,500 pharmacies since 2017—that is 15% of the entire network. Those national pressures are felt acutely in my constituency of Wolverhampton North East, where, since 2020, we have seen a net loss of six pharmacies. Yet, despite those challenges, my local pharmacies continue to step up. Through Pharmacy First alone, they have delivered more than 23,500 consultations. That points to the scale of the opportunities ahead. Community pharmacies are central to the future of primary care. It is thought that they could release up to 51 million primary care appointments by doing more on prevention and helping patients to manage long-term conditions. Independent prescribing is a vital part of that vision. At present, many pharmacies derive over 90% of their income from NHS funding while facing rising staff costs and increasing business pressures. The sector has also lost more than 3,000 full-time equivalent pharmacists in recent years. I therefore ask the Minister: what steps will the Government take to provide long-term sustainable funding and a road map for community pharmacies, and how will they address the workforce shortages and challenges? In Wolverhampton North East, pharmacies have stepped up time and again for local people. Now I stand with my pharmacies to ensure that they can continue to serve my constituents for many years to come.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I thank the hon. Member for Tiverton and Minehead (Rachel Gilmour) for placing this matter before us. I also welcome the Minister to his place. I very much look forward to his commitment to the pharmacies, and I welcome the Government’s commitment so far—it would be rather churlish of anybody to say that we do not appreciate that. In January 2024, I called for a UK-wide roll-out of the Pharmacy First service, recognising increasing demand on pharmacies and the need for consistent access to healthcare across the United Kingdom. As the Democratic Unionist party’s health spokesperson, I continue to advocate for increased investments and support for the scheme as a means of decreasing pressures on our already strained healthcare system. Across the United Kingdom, a significant proportion of GP workload is addressing minor ailments—conditions that can be appropriately treated in community pharmacies. I have always advocated for that; we should be doing more of it. Investing and increasing community pharmacies’ capacity to treat those conditions, and, in turn, highlighting to the public their ability to avail themselves of pharmaceutical services for such ailments, will improve ease of access to standard care, reducing unnecessary GP and out-of-hours contact. Broadening the capability of the scheme also allows pharmacists to build their clinical skills and creates a more experienced workforce that can more readily diagnose and treat conditions, so I believe that we should look at this as an opportunity. I want to give a Northern Ireland perspective, as I always do in debates. There are 508 community pharmacies in Northern Ireland, and their use is steadily increasing. In 2024-25, Northern Irish pharmacies dispensed more than 45.7 million items—a 0.7% increase on the previous year. That is the highest figure on record, which indicates that we need to increase support for pharmacies to meet demand. In Northern Ireland, community pharmacies would benefit from a more formalised version of the Pharmacy First scheme, as it currently diverges from England’s formalised Pharmacy First structure and depends primarily on a minor ailments service. What discussions can the Minister—who is always responsive, for which I thank him—have with the Northern Ireland Assembly Minister, to ascertain how we can work better with the system that has been proposed for England. There is clear support for the scheme in Northern Ireland: 96% of respondents to a 2024 Northern Ireland Department of Health survey said that the informal Pharmacy First service should be recommended to others. The service improves patients’ confidence in the self-management of conditions, which is vital to a long-term reduction of unnecessary burdens on our strained GP services. As a result of the benefits of the service, in May 2024 the Department of Health’s community pharmacy strategic plan unveiled plans for Northern Irish pharmacies to treat six new conditions, offer two new services and run various pilots. Those improvements are to be introduced in the period up to 2030, but they are subject to the securing of the necessary funding. Rural patients often travel significant distances to access GPs, but they are likely to have easy access to a pharmacy. It is estimated that, as of 2025, 99% of Northern Ireland citizens live within five miles of their local pharmacy. Pharmacies clearly play a big role for us in Northern Ireland and across the United Kingdom. Many rural residents are older adults who live with long-term health conditions, so improving access to Pharmacy First services will support early intervention. The DUP recognises the pressure on GPs and hospitals, and recently welcomed the £42 million investment in pharmacy and digital reform, which has the potential to modernise prescription services to reduce the pressure. I very much look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say. In particular, I ask him to share the information from England with the Minister in Northern Ireland, and to ensure that the UK-wide support for this vital cog in the health machine is endorsed and even increased.