A delegation of community pharmacists is set to meet with the UK Government's minister for Northern Ireland, Fleur Anderson, next month to discuss rising financial challenges facing the sector.

The group will be led by Ulster Unionist Party peer Lord Rogan who said local pharmacies had been dispensing at a loss for 'far too long', while rising employment costs announced in the recent Budget had exacerbated financial pressures.

'This is not a matter for Stormont, but a problem created by UK ministers and only they have the power to fix it,' he said.

Dissatisfaction among pharmacy owners in Northern Ireland appears high, with the majority of National Pharmacy Association (NPA) members in the nation recently voting to limit services, including refusing to collect paper prescriptions from GP surgeries.

Recent budget 'another major cost burden'

Rising cost pressures and dispensing at a loss have been going on 'for far too long' and are placing the 'very existence' of Northern Ireland's pharmacies at risk, Lord Rogan said in a statement issued this week.

He added that despite meeting with a Northern Ireland Office minister in the previous Conservative Government last year, they had been unable to come to a resolution to the issues.

'The Labour Government has now placed another major cost burden on community pharmacists by using last month’s Budget to announce significant increases in employers’ National Insurance contributions and the National Living Wage,' said Lord Rogan.

'Crucially, ministers have refused to cover these extra costs for pharmacists – despite agreeing to do so for other parts of the NHS.

'This has placed innumerable community pharmacies in Northern Ireland – especially those in rural areas - in a potentially unsustainable financial position.

'This is not a matter for Stormont, but a problem created by UK ministers and only they have the power to fix it,' Lord Rogan said.

And he added that he was looking forward to a 'constructive meeting' with Ms Anderson in London next month and hoped 'that a positive outcome can be achieved'.

A spokesperson for the UK Government's Northern Ireland Office said: 'Health services are devolved in Northern Ireland but minister Anderson looks forward to meeting with Lord Rogan and pharmacists to understand the concerns of community pharmacists in Northern Ireland.'

Lord Rogan has previously raised concerns that soaring medicines costs and the impact on pharmacies were 'putting lives at risk'.

Northern Ireland pharmacies refuse to collect prescriptions from GP surgeries

Northern Ireland saw the highest turnout in the NPA's recent ballot on 'working-to-rule' style collective action - with 71% of NPA members in the nation turning out to vote, compared to 63.4% in England and 55.8% in Wales.

The 303 NPA members in Northern Ireland represent at least half of the nation's approximately 500 pharmacies.

Of the 215 pharmacy owners that voted in the NPA's recent ballot in Northern Ireland, 95.4% said they were prepared to 'no longer collect prescriptions from GP surgeries on patients' behalf and deliver them for free'.

Paul Rees, NPA chief executive, told The Pharmacist earlier this week that the lack of electronic prescriptions in Northern Ireland was a 'bone of contention' for pharmacies, which must collect the prescriptions manually from GP surgeries.

Northern Ireland pharmacy owners raise patient safety concerns

The 215 participating contractors also unanimously agreed to give the Department of Health Northern Ireland notice that 'without immediate material improvements' to the sector's funding, they 'cannot guarantee community pharmacy services will remain safe into the future'.

Specifically, the motion called for 'the implementation of a guaranteed funding roadmap for the Community Pharmacy Strategy 2030'.

The plan was published earlier this year and pledges to 'expand the trusted role that community pharmacies have in supplying medicines, to offer more clinical services that utilise the skills of community pharmacy teams and offer safe, convenient, and faster access to care'.

For instance, it sets out the government's intention to expand Pharmacy First in the nation and introduce a hypertension detection service, 'subject to securing the necessary funding'.

Northern Ireland pharmacies could limit services under collective action

In the NPA ballot, 99.5% of respondents in Northern Ireland said they were prepared to limit their service offering in the interests of patient safety, if adequate funding was not forthcoming.

All respondents said they were prepared to stop co-operating with requests for data and analytics 'above those required for patient safety and contractual minimums'.

And 99.5% said they were prepared to withdraw free medication deliveries and unfunded provision of monitored dosage systems outside the provisions of the Equality Act.

The same proportion also said they were prepared to serve notice on opening hours beyond contractual minimums.