Public back pharmacy outcry as pharmacy pressures increase more than ever – A survey commissioned by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) found that two thirds of the those who took part found it unfair that pharmacies in England have not seen their budgets increase for at least 8 years – many are struggling with the huge increase in costs of running a pharmacy. The budgets have shown no increase despite the demands and workload being increased significantly, especially over the course of the pandemic where pharmacies were the ONLY healthcare service provider who had its doors opened to serve the public.
The public are realising the struggle they see in their local community pharmacies from pharmacist shortages leading to early closures of pharmacies in some instance, stock shortages due to huge stock issues across the board, staff sickness with covid putting more pressure on the teams and a huge increase in some services now being provided in community pharmacies rather than GP surgeries but not extra funding or resource to implement them.
The survey found that up to 81% of respondents found it unfair that pharmacies are now receiving less funding than they did before the pandemic – how does that make sense?
Furthermore, the increase in energy rises is also being felt by pharmacies were prices are looking to triple, this makes it very difficult to keep a business afloat. The government must to more to help keep their healthcare service providers protected so they can continue to deliver the pharmaceutical services safely and easily to the public. I have been qualified for 10 years as a pharmacist and this has been the toughest time in pharmacy and it is visible to see the huge shrink in budgets and the pressures mounting for the pharmacy teams. Patient expectations have increased and demand for quick easy access has heightened as many cannot get access to their GP. Something has to change as this way of working will not be safe and we are already at the risk of the system breaking. The new Prime minister Liz Truss has said ‘we will deliver, deliver, deliver’ but will she deliver for the community pharmacies in the UK who are crying out for help? Only time will tell.