Any dispensations to provide financial relief for health bodies impacted by rising National Insurance contributions should include community pharmacy, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has stressed.

In a statement shared on Friday (1 November), Janet Morrison, CPE chief executive, said the negotiator was 'deeply concerned about the impact of the Autumn Budget on a pharmacy sector already in financial crisis'.

Pharmacy, GP and other health employers have raised concerns about the impact of increased employer National Insurance contributions and the National Living Wage rise, as outlined in the Budget.

Ms Morrison said CPE was 'following up with DHSC officials on the detailed costings of the impacts of all the budgetary changes on community pharmacies'.

And as GP representatives have argued that they should be classed as public bodies and therefore exempt from the charges, Ms Morrison said that the pharmacy negotiator was 'strongly arguing that any dispensations for health bodies should include community pharmacy'.

She added that CPE 'will be doing everything we can to push for funding to cover those additional costs for pharmacy owners'.

The Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA) has estimated that rising employment overheads could cost an average community pharmacy premises an extra £12,000 each year - totalling around £125m across the sector as a whole.

The IPA has called for community pharmacy employers to be exempt from employers' national insurance contributions.

And Paul Rees, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) said it would be 'an insult' if GPs received government support for the National Insurance rise but pharmacies did not.

He highlighted that 'hard working pharmacies' have faced 'nearly a decade of cuts in funding and are shutting at record rates'.

'Around 95% of the work of an average pharmacy is spent delivering vital NHS services and they should be included in support offered to other NHS services.

'It is imperative the government’s settlement for pharmacies this year halts the real terms cuts that have dogged pharmacies for years and covers increased National Insurance and National Living Wage bills, or we will face more pharmacies shutting in the months to come,' Mr Rees added.

The government confirmed to The Pharmacist today that it would cover the cost of National Insurance employer contributions to central government departments, public corporations and local government, as had been the case in previous years and by previous governments.

But it did not confirm whether community pharmacies, as healthcare employers, would be considered public corporations.

A Department of Health and Social Care (DSHC) spokesperson said it had 'taken tough decisions to fix the foundations so a £22bn boost for the NHS and social care could be announced at the Budget'.

'The employer national insurance rise doesn’t kick in until April, and we will set out further details on allocation of funding for next year in due course,' they added.