The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) is 'pausing any action recommendation' while it considers the detail of the pharmacy funding announcement.

It previously said it would advise its members to give notice on 1 April that they would be reducing their opening hours or otherwise reducing pharmacy services, if a satisfactory funding deal was not announced in time.

On Monday, a new pharmacy contract was announced that included:

  • An uplift to £3.073bn for the 2025/26 global sum
  • A further £215m available for contractors to earn through Pharmacy First, blood pressure and contraception services
  • An increased medicines margin for 2025/26 to £900m
  • Some £193m of historic ‘over-payment’ written off
  • Services delivered during 2024/25 paid at previous contractual rates, including £106m in addition to the £2.592bn global sum for services delivered above this value.

The NPA confirmed to The Pharmacist today that it would be 'pausing any action recommendation whilst we consider the detail of this announcement and are keen to hear from members about how they feel this update will impact on them in their own pharmacy'.

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NPA chair Nick Kaye said: 'The last decade has been extremely challenging for our members who have grappled with unprecedented funding pressures which have pushed them to the brink, as outlined by the NHS commissioned economic analysis.

'We wholeheartedly agree with the government’s objectives to expand care in our communities so we're keen to work with ministers, who have inherited a dreadful legacy.

'It is clear that this funding announcement is a step forwards to begin the process of reversing 40% cuts to funding.'

He added: 'As a membership organisation accountable to the majority of independent pharmacies in England, we want to understand from our members how they feel this new announcement will impact them, and most importantly their patients, before recommending next steps and we hope to update on this very soon.

'Our campaigning has given this issue an unprecedented national profile and driven the challenges facing community pharmacies up the political agenda in a way we have not seen before. It has undoubtedly shifted the terms of debate around pharmacy funding.

'We will always bang the drum for pharmacies and ensure our members concerns are heard at the highest levels.'

Minister urges NPA to 'do the right thing'

Speaking to press ahead of yesterday's announcement, pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock said: ‘We really do hope that the NPA will do the right thing and will recognise that this deal is a strong deal for the sector.'

He added: 'We all have the same shared aims, the same common agenda... we are working, we're straining every sinew, to secure as much funding as we can, to drive forward as much reform as we can, and to work together in a really constructive way.'

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The minister previously called the NPA's potential action 'premature, unnecessary and detrimental to community pharmacy patients'.

Ahead of yesterday's announcement he added: 'I would just urge the NPA now to engage closely with their colleagues in the CPE [Community Pharmacy England], engage around the shared agenda that we all have.

'And I would say to them, let's have some serious consideration of what the priorities should be and what the best next steps for them should be, in the interests of the pharmacy sector and indeed in the interests of our entire NHS.

'So I hope they will reconsider their position [and] I hope that they will engage on that basis.’

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CPE: 'Anything that undermines negotiations is unhelpful'

Also speaking to press ahead of yesterday's announcement, CPE chief executive Janet Morrison said: ‘There's been a lot of noise, generally, from the sector during negotiations, and I think anything that diverts, undermines the negotiator when they are working as hard as we were, to come to conclusions, is quite unhelpful.'

She added: 'I'm unclear what the benefits are of doing that mid-negotiation... I'm not always sure what people think they're going to achieve when we're mid-negotiation... the budget for these negotiations will have been set last year after the October budget and the wrangling that went on about how to allocate the funding within Department of Health.

'So, I'm not entirely clear – and I'm not just pointing at NPA, but I'm pointing at anyone who is making lots of noise – what the benefit they thought they were going to achieve by doing that when we were full on in very intense negotiations.’