October 16th 2024

By Ailsa Colquhoun

England reports only one successful rural pharmacy application

Rural areas of England saw only one successful rural pharmacy application during 2023-24. This compares to five in the previous year.

During the year, England saw a net increase of 595 pharmacies (5 per cent) to 12,009 pharmacies, according to the report General Pharmaceutical Services in England 2015-16 - 2023-24 | NHSBSA

This takes the size of the pharmacy network to pre-2015 levels.

However, NHS BSA statisticians clarify that this number includes sales of existing businesses, which increased during the year, following turbulance in the pharmacy market.

In summary, other findings from the report include:   

• 1.1 billion prescription items were dispensed by community pharmacies - this was a 3% increase from 2022/23. 
• 1.08 billion prescription items were dispensed via the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) - this was 96% of all items dispensed, and a small percentage increase from 2022/23.
• The cost of drugs and appliances reimbursed totalled £10 billion - this was a 5% increase from 2022/23.

The controlled locations data is found in table 20 of the supporting tables.