News » England, Pharmacy Owners' News » Pharmacies announce collective action
November 14th 2024
Pharmacy owners have voted in favour of collective action from the New Year.
This could see pharmacies reduce opening hours to minimum contractual hours and withdraw from additional services such as emergency contraception and stop smoking services.
The action has been announced by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), which said its members “have been forced into an untenable position by a decade of underfunding”.
Some 3,339 independent community pharmacies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland took part in the unprecedented ballot, a turnout of 64 per cent. Almost 98 per cent of respondents (97.8%) said they would serve notice on opening hours above the minimum.
According to the NPA, pharmacies are contracted to open for 40 hours a week minimum, although most are open for 50 hours a week on average. On other matters, 96.1 per cent voted to withdraw from locally commissioned services such as emergency contraception, addiction support and stop smoking services, while 96.8 per cent voted to stop supplying medicine packs that the NHS do not pay pharmacies to provide, other than those covered by the Disability Discrimination Act.
Almost all (99.2%) voted to refuse to co-operate with certain data requests above those required for patient safety and contractual minimums.
The NPA estimates about 700 pharmacies have shut in England in the last two years, with more than 1,250 closing in the last decade.
Mr Kaye added: “The sense of anger among pharmacy owners has been intensified exponentially by the Budget – with its hike in National Insurance employers’ contributions and the unfunded National Living Wage increase – which has tipped even more pharmacies to the brink.”
The NPA ballot comes amid collective action by GPs in England. GPs are also faced with unfunded increased NIC contributions following the Autumn budget. The BMA has described this as an “existential” threat to general practice.
The DDA urges all dispensing GPs to support its lobby of the health secretary over the increases.
