Community Pharmacy England (CPE) stands ready to restart contract negotiations 'immediately', it has said following yesterday's Autumn Budget.

Janet Morrison, CPE chief executive, said she told ministers on Wednesday that 'without funding relief' there will be more pharmacies closing, and more patients going without advice or medicines and therefore turning to other parts of the health service.

'Neither patients nor the NHS can afford for this to happen, and the consequences of more pharmacy businesses collapsing for all those who work in, and rely on, them would be disastrous,' she added.

Announcements made by chancellor Rachel Reeves during yesterday's Budget included increases to national living wage and employer National Insurance contributions, as well as the promise of an additional £22.6 billion for day-to-day healthcare spending,

But Ms Morrison warned that cost increases for community pharmacy businesses had been outlined in the Budget 'without providing any clarity on whether relief is on the way for the sector'.

In a statement published last night, Ms Morrison said that CPE was 'ready to restart CPCF negotiations immediately – these discussions will be absolutely critical for the survival of community pharmacy, and indeed for the millions of people who rely on pharmacies every day.'

Separately, Paul Rees, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), said pharmacies would be 'deeply worried by looming increases in National Insurance and the national living wage which would impose huge additional costs on their NHS-funded services if the government does not pick up the bill'.

'Tsunami of overhead increases'

And Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA), said that if community pharmacy funding was not uplifted, 'the tsunami of overhead increases in the national minimum wage, national insurance and other costs will surely push even more community pharmacies over the edge and undermine the government’s claim to believe in investing in primary care as a means to transform healthcare'.

Investing in pharmacy 'vital'

Also commenting on yesterday's budget, Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) England chair Tase Oputu, said that investing in pharmacy was 'vital' to ensure 'patients can get the medicines they need when they need them'.

And she added that in order to 'provide care closer to home and address health inequalities, patients must be able to access community pharmacies wherever they may live'.

'Pharmacy can and should be central' to NHS plans

Meanwhile, Harry McQuillan, Numark chair and former chief executive of Community Pharmacy Scotland, said that 'pharmacy can and should be central' to the government's plans to shift focus from hospital to community and increase productivity in the NHS.

But he said the increase to employer national insurance contributions would 'place an unbearable strain on community pharmacies across the country, especially as they have no ability to increase the prices they charge the NHS in an attempt to offset this direct tax on pharmacy team costs'.

'The situation is critical in England and Northern Ireland and will have an impact in Wales and Scotland,' Mr McQuillan said.

'For extended funding on the NHS to have the impact communities so desperately need, community pharmacy needs to be not only considered but at the core,' he added.