Pharmacists call for urgent review of medicines margins

Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has called for an urgent review of the margin element of the pharmacy contract for England.

Seeking to amend the element of funding that also affects dispensing GPs, the negotiator for England says that pharmacies have been in a ‘pay back’ situation since 2021. In a submission to the Health and Social Care Committee pharmacy enquiry, CPE explains: “Given the partial write-offs that the Government has had to concede recently, the system is not working as it needs to.”

The submission highlights pressures on dispensing that also affect dispensing GPs: the recovery of margin retained during the pandemic; the inexorable rise in prescribing; remaining margin spread more thinly than ever.

It warns that as well as financial pressure on pharmacies, this has reduced resilience in the market to withstand spikes in demand and other shocks to medicine supply.

It states that during 2023, there was an average 149 concessions per month, compared to about 50 per month in 2020/21. Pharmacies may also be ordering higher than previous volumes of medicines in order to insulate their patients against shortages.

The submission calls for an extra £1.2 billion in contract funding, and for pharmacies to be able to substitute alternatives to “alleviate shortages, get better outcomes for patients and reduce pressure on general practice”.

England Political News