Pharmacies in Northern Ireland face April ‘financial cliff edge’ without urgent action
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has warned that thousands of pharmacies face a financial ‘cliff edge’ in April as rises in National Insurance and National Living Wage take effect.
The NPA is warning that pharmacies in Northern Ireland, could face at least £10 million of unplanned costs and risk being forced to cut back their services or in some cases consider closing altogether without urgent action from the government.
Many pharmacies are reporting of bills of tens of thousands of pounds which are unfunded, on top of managing the impact of funding freezes, leading to a number of closures.
On top of this, pharmacies also face increased business rates, further pushing up costs.
Neighbourhood Retailer first reported on this in March 2024 when a Belfast pharmacist drew attention to the fact that pharmacists across Northern Ireland were being stretched beyond their financial limits, as pressures of the last few years come to a head, and indeed were dispensing medicines at a loss.
Paul Savage, who owns Woodbourne Pharmacy on the Stewartstown Road, told NR that a 10% ‘clawback’ applied by the Department of Health was compounding the situation.
The revelation came after a Stormont Health Committee was told there was an urgent funding crisis in the sector, which is impacting the financial viability of community pharmacy here and could place the supply of medicines in pharmacy at risk.
Unlike other businesses, pharmacies are unable to increase their prices in order to meet the sort of unexpected rises set to come into force in April.
The NPA has said it will recommend its members take collective action, including cutting back their opening hours for patients, if these costs are not met by the government imminently.
Unlike GPs and other parts of the NHS, the government have yet to commit to meeting rises in National Insurance and National Living Wage announced in the Budget and are due to come into force in just five weeks’ time.
Around 90 per cent of an average pharmacy’s work is funded via the NHS, including the cost of supplying medication as well providing vaccination services, such as the flu and Covid-19 vaccine.
In this historic ballot run by the NPA, 99.7 per cent of said they would be prepared to take collective action for the first time in their history if their funding situation did not improve.
Nick Kaye, Chair of the National Pharmacy Association, said: “Pharmacies face a financial cliff edge at the beginning of April, with a triple whammy of rising National Insurance, National Living Wage and business rates all arriving at once.
“At the moment, they still have no certainty if any of these costs will be met, despite assurances for other parts of the health system including our GP colleagues.
“Pharmacies have shut in record numbers and those that are left are currently hanging on by their fingernails.
“They are growing increasingly concerned about their future and without imminent funding certainty from the government we may be left with little choice but to recommend collective action to ensure pharmacies can survive for the patients who rely on them.”
