Pharmacy managers struggling to pay for medication

Sherry Samrai said she could not afford all the medicines her customers were asking for

Pharmacies have said they feel trapped in an NHS system which is not giving them the money they need to supply medicines to their customers.

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has called for an annual £1.7bn funding increase and some pharmacy owners have said they would cut opening hours and stopping home deliveries in protest.

Sherry Samrai, manager at the Woodside Pharmacy in Telford, said she was having to turn away frustrated patients because she could not justify the cost of buying in some drugs.

The government said it was looking to make "fundamental reforms" and had "inherited a system that has been neglected for too long".

Nigel Dugmore, from Donnington Pharmacy, also in Telford, said the cost of buying in stock had risen by up to 60% in the past few years, but the money he got from the NHS to fund pay for it had remained the same.

The NPA is not a trade union, but represents 6,500 of the UK's community pharmacies.

It said 700 pharmacies had shut in England in the past two years alone and that it had no choice but to recommend pharmacies withdraw services from as early as the new year, if funding was not increased.

Ms Samrai said: "We’re working with really tight margins with our wholesalers at the moment.

"We are turning away a lot of patients, for example on blood pressure medication - it's just not worth us dispensing them."

She has been a pharmacy manager for 15 years and said larger chains could get some benefits from bulk ordering, but that was not easy for community pharmacies such as the one she manages.

Letting down patients, because she cannot afford to buy in some prescription medication was hard for her staff she said, adding "it really does impact us".

Nigel Dugmore said the NHS funding system was too inflexible

An NHS spokesperson said it was "working with government and pharmacies to find a way forward so patients continue to receive high-quality care".

Mr Dugmore, who is also a Conservative councillor in Telford, agreed that the current system was not working.

He said: "For quite a long time now the amount the NHS has been paying for medicines has been less than the cost it takes to buy it in."

He said pharmacies were stuck with a five-year funding settlement from the government which the treasury "will not budge on", but wholesalers had been increasing prices.

"You would have thought there would have been some review clauses in there," he said.

To make matters worse, he said pharmacies had to buy in medicines before they could apply to the NHS for the funding to pay for it, which can take up to two months to arrive.

That can place extra pressure on his community pharmacy in the winter, when it has to buy in extra cold and flu treatments.

The NPA said 700 pharmacies have shut in England in the past two years

Onkar Singh, a pharmacist and director of Prentex, which runs eight pharmacies across Wolverhampton and Walsall, said a number of pharmacies there had closed recently and that "funding has dropped like a stone over the past five years".

But he decided not to vote in the NPA ballot for protest action over fears it would cause his patients concern.

"We've already had calls from a number of patients about the change in services," he said.

"So it's been about trying to reassure them."

Nigel Dugmore also said he did not support the action and would not be reducing the service he provided.

He said: "I couldn’t hand-on-heart turn around say to someone I can't treat you because the NHS wont pay - you have to remember why you're here.

"Why should patients suffer?"

Closures 'no surprise'

Amo Sohal, pharmacist at Kitsons Pharmacy in Worcester, which dates back to 1749, said his current funding position was "quite disconcerting". 

"I think this is a really clear sign from the people that took part in the vote," he said.  

"The current contract that we are stuck with historically hasn't had any change for quite a while and we're having to live with that. 

"If you imagine a hamster on a treadmill, we're going faster and faster and even then it's not enough. 

"It's not surprising the pharmacies are closing. 

"The government has to sit up and take notice of this because once they're gone, they're gone."