Continued delays to the community pharmacy contract for 2024/25 may leave pharmacies with 'little choice' but to withdraw services from patients, the chair of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has warned.

With negotiations still yet to recommence more than nine months after the pharmacy contract was due to begin, the NPA has warned that some pharmacy owners have had to take out six figure loans in order to continue delivering NHS services to patients.

And others have been unable to invest in staff and facilities for patients because of crippling uncertainty over their budget.

NPA chair Nick Kaye added that the situation had been 'inflamed' by the government's December contract offer to GP colleagues for the next financial year 'before even starting negotiations' for the current year's pharmacy contract.

'The last thing pharmacies want to do is to withdraw vital services from patients as a form of collective action, but we may be left with little choice unless things improve,' he said.

In an advisory ballot run by the NPA in England, Wales and Northern Ireland late last year, some 99% of participating pharmacy owners said they were willing to limit their services unless funding is improved.

Mr Kaye called on the government to 'get around the table as soon as is possible to end the crippling uncertainty and offer reassurance and security to pharmacies so they can serve their communities with confidence'.

Ashley Cohen, owner of several pharmacies and care home services in Leeds, said that he has 'had to go to the bank twice since January 2024 and had to borrow £125k to get us through this year'.

'There is only so many times you can inject money from savings accounts, borrow from the bank or cash in on pension pots to keep your business afloat,' he said.

Mr Cohen added that he was 'incredulous' about the continued delays to the pharmacy contract.

'I am part of the NHS and I rely on about 90-95% of my funding on an NHS contract. I am looking at April with the introduction of National Insurance contributions and increases in the National Living Wage as a cliff edge. This whole period of uncertainty is very stressful for me and my pharmacy team.

'The current government may not be to blame for the decade of underfunding, but they urgently need to step in now before it’s too late to give us the stability urgently required,' he added.

And south London pharmacy owner Reena Barai said: 'I am unable to make decisions about my pharmacy such as taking on staff, making improvements to our premises and offering new services that could help my local community as I am in the dark as to the contract I am supposed to be working to and the financial remuneration attributed to it.'

She added that the National Insurance contribution increases set to begin in April would be 'a huge blow for all pharmacy owners'.

'With no contract, we have no certainty as to how we will pay for it. Within this current climate, with pharmacies closing at a rate of seven a week, this spells disaster for the local pharmacy network across the country,' Ms Barai added.

Meanwhile Kevin Simpson, a pharmacy owner in Sunderland, said he had a 'list of suppliers' waiting to be paid, and would be writing to the NHS to reduce his opening hours this month.

And Sukhi Basra, a pharmacy owner in central London, said the financial pressures 'caused by the delays in fair funding' had forced her family to make 'heart-wrenching decisions' over the future of the family business.

'My husband has had to step away from our own pharmacy to work as a locum elsewhere, while I’ve stayed behind with our dedicated team to keep things running. It’s cruel to leave the very business we’ve built, the patients we’ve served, and the community we love, just to secure enough income to survive.'

In response to the NPA comments about the impact of the pharmacy contract delay, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said that this government had 'inherited a pharmacy system that has been neglected for too long and isn’t supporting pharmacists to deliver the care they want for patients'.

'Community pharmacy has a vital role to play as we shift the focus of the NHS out of hospitals and into the community, and we will shortly be resuming our consultation with Community Pharmacy England (CPE) to agree new funding arrangements,' they added.

Yesterday (7 January), negotiator CPE told The Pharmacist that it had 'been assured' that funding negotiations 'will re-commence this month'.