The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has advised its members in England to reduce their opening hours, as a funding deal for the sector has still not yet been announced.

This could see NPA pharmacies give notice from 1 April that they will reduce their opening hours to core contractual minimums.

Reduced opening hours could then begin after the five week notice period, from 6 May.

NPA chair Nick Kaye said the ‘ideal situation’ would be that ‘a great funding deal comes out in the next three days’, and pharmacies do not need to take action.

But though a new contractual framework is rumoured to be imminent, Mr Kaye told reporters during a media briefing on Monday: ‘Rumours are rumours.’

He added: ‘Imminent could be three weeks. Could be four weeks. Is it tomorrow?’

'We can't go into another year without a settlement'

‘We are now six years into a five-year deal, we've got no sight of 24/25, we've got April coming, which people are saying to us is a genuine crunch,’ Mr Kaye said.

In the new financial year, pharmacies will face increases in national living wage, business rates and National Insurance contributions.

Contractors will also have to deal with the impact of the short dispensing month of February, ‘less cash flow income’ and clawbacks, Mr Kaye said.

‘Those technical things actually drop into April and make it really, really, really hard,’ he added.

And he said a ‘lack of clarity about where we're going’ meant contractors on the ground ‘don't know how to plan and don't know what to plan’.

‘We're calling time in April to say we can't go into another year without a settlement. We just can't do it.’

'Pharmacy owners are asking when they should take action'

Mr Kaye said NPA members were asking ‘when they should’ take the action that was agreed upon in its ballot last year.

In the autumn, owners of around 3,000 pharmacies in England voted to serve notice on opening hours above the minimum required by their contract.

'I've been trying to hold back a tide of people going: "we need to do this, we need to do that", but also giving both CPE [Community Pharmacy England] and government time to to respond to [the NPA ballot] in a constructive way,' Mr Kaye said.

As well as reducing their opening hours, pharmacies may take other actions to reduce their running costs in the new financial year.

This could include:

  • stopping unfunded free home deliveries of medicines;
  • withdrawing from locally commissioned services, including some local addiction support services, emergency contraception and stop smoking support;
  • refusing to co-operate with certain data requests above those required for patient safety and contractual minimums.

'People are borrowing money, re-mortgaging houses'

But he said he believed ‘the human being side’ of the situation warranted taking action now.

‘We've got people borrowing money. We've got people re-mortgaging houses.

‘I’m seeing lots of broken people… When you have financial worries, they invade every part of your world and every part of your life,' added Mr Kaye.

And he said the NPA’s recommendation today was about giving contractors ‘permission’ to reduce their opening hours.

Doing so could help them keep their businesses afloat and plan for the future, Mr Kaye suggested.

‘I have no problem with giving them some time back and protecting themselves in the short term so that they'll be here for the longer term.’

'This action is reversible: pharmacies want to work with the government'

But Mr Kaye noted that the actions being taken were ‘all reversible’, dependent on the settlement that is agreed for the sector.

‘We want to work with the government too. But at the minute, the lack of clarity of where we're going is really difficult,’ he said.

In January, the NPA said that any offer for the sector must meet five key 'tests':

  • increased funding,
  • payment in arrears for 2024/25,
  • equitable and transparent core funding,
  • a roadmap to reform the sector and the Drug Tariff,
  • and a mechanism to review funding regularly.

CPE: pharmacy funding negotiations are ‘about to conclude’

In response to the NPA's announcement, Janet Morrison, CPE chief executive, acknowledged that the new financial year was 'rapidly approaching'.

She said: 'As well as additional funding, pharmacy owners desperately need clarity about the future.

'Many are already making impossible decisions to help their businesses to survive and to protect patients.

Ms Morrison added that all CPE committee members were 'fully aware of the sector’s urgent need for funding'.

And she said the committee knew the sector needed negotiations to conclude 'as robustly and speedily as possible to secure the best outcomes for pharmacy owners'.

'We are not able to give a running commentary on negotiations, but as the secretary of state commented to Parliament last week – negotiations are ‘about to conclude’.

'It remains our goal to communicate with the sector as soon as possible, and before the start of the financial year,' she added.