Four in 10 pharmacy owners are worried that their business may not survive the winter, recent polling by Community Pharmacy England (CPE) suggests.

Some 39% of contractors said they were 'very concerned' about their pharmacy business going into winter, warning that they were worried about having to close permanently.

Meanwhile, 81% warned of longer waiting times, 73% suggested there would be reduced availability of services over winter, and 32% warned of reduced accessibility such as reduced opening hours.

Just 30% of pharmacy owners said patient safety shouldn't be affected by winter pressures.

The survey reflects the views of 358 pharmacy owners or head office representatives, between them representing 3,565 pharmacy premises across England, who participated in CPE's online polls open between 21 October and 4 November 2024.

The negotiator also polled 55 senior Local Pharmaceutical Committee (LPC) leaders at its LPC conference on 21 November.

Without an immediate funding uplift for the sector, 73% of local pharmacy representatives surveyed said they were 'extremely concerned' about the ability of pharmacies in their area to continue serving their patients and local communities this winter.

They joined 24% of local leaders who said they were 'concerned'.

Two in 10 local pharmacy representatives said say they expect their local pharmacies will have to stop providing Pharmacy First amid winter pressures, and more than a third (36%) said they expected to see a reduction in other services.

Meanwhile, 67% of LPC leaders said they expected to see pharmacies reduce their opening hours, 60% warned of permanent closures, and 58% said that patients will have to wait longer for medicines.

Some 69% of LPC leaders said pressures on community pharmacies would have a 'serious negative impact' on patients and the public this winter, with the further 31% warning of 'a negative impact'. No LPC leaders said there would be a positive impact or no impact at all on patients.

Anil Sharma, a community pharmacy owner in the East of England, added: ‘We are really feeling the strain in community pharmacy, and as winter approaches, it feels even harder to manage.

‘My team and I are burnt out, stressed, and worried about how we’ll cope with ever increasing demand.

‘Patients rely on us, yet every day the service we are able to offer is deteriorating, whether its medicines we are unable to source, or waiting times because the team are so overloaded: we need urgent support to be able to keep helping our patients in the way that we want to.’

CPE chief executive Janet Morrison said: ‘Community pharmacies simply will not withstand another season of winter pressures, and if they are left to collapse, the impact on businesses and their staff, on patients, on the wider NHS, and ultimately on the nation’s health, will be unthinkable.’

She warned that ‘years of underfunding’ and real-term cuts had left pharmacies ‘battling for survival’.

‘They will continue to do everything they can to stay open and serve their patients, and they still have big ambitions to do even more to help people and the NHS in the future, but pharmacies now need urgent support,’ added Ms Morrison.