The community pharmacy sector has expressed frustration and anger as GPs in England were this morning offered a contract for the 2025/26 financial year while community pharmacies continue to operate without a contract that should have begun in April this year.

In a letter to GPs sent today, health secretary Wes Streeting committed 'to put general practice at the heart of primary care', with a new contract offering £889m in funding from April 2025.

But community pharmacy leaders have expressed outrage that GPs had been offered their contract for the next financial year before pharmacies had received an offer for the current year.

The government confirmed this week that negotiations for the current financial year community pharmacy contractual framework, which should have started in April 2024, will not begin until the new year.

Janet Morrison, chief executive of the sector's negotiator Community Pharmacy England (CPE) said it was 'extraordinary that the Government has announced what looks to be a generous investment in General Practice for 2025/26 before settling the contract for community pharmacies – many of whom are on the brink of collapse – for this financial year'.

'For desperate pharmacy owners working hard to support their patients despite intolerable financial and operational pressures, today’s announcement will feel like more evidence of the inequity at the heart of primary care, and it is a further kick while they are down.

'The ongoing delays to CPCF negotiations are infuriating, particularly after we have only recently written to Ministers to express our very serious concerns and intense anger about this. Today's announcement further intensifies our frustration. It is clearly in everyone's interests to have a strong general practice service, but without a stable network of community pharmacies to support them, any efforts to ease pressure on GPs will be wasted.

'Government and the NHS cannot be in any doubt that community pharmacies are chronically and dangerously underfunded and need urgent help. While assurances this week from ministers that news is coming soon and that the pressures have been taken into account have been very welcome, this is not enough: every further delay is likely too late for some pharmacy business and the communities and patients they serve. Community pharmacies simply cannot wait any longer for the good news they so desperately need.'

Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association (AIMp) said that the further delay to the community pharmacy contract, which should have been in place nine months ago, was 'simply cruel'.

'The authorities are well aware of the devastation that the stagnated 2019 five year deal has caused to community pharmacies,' she said.

And she suggested that delaying negotiations until 2025 indicated that 'the authorities are planning to combine the 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 funding in one, a two year deal'.

Dr Hannbeck noted pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock's comments in parliament this week recognising 'that there has been a 28% real term cuts to community pharmacy funding'.

'We are therefore calling on the Government and officials to address this real term cut to community pharmacy funding by giving a 28% uplift to the community pharmacy sector - we are calling on the minister and officials to do this urgently as our sector is struggling to survive,' she said.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Company Chemists' Association (CCA) said it was 'pleased that the GPs have been offered a contract' and now hoped that 'focus will be given to community pharmacy contract negotiations and securing the uplift that pharmacies urgently need'.

'We hope that once they open, negotiations are concluded quickly as pharmacy businesses of all sizes need certainty to make operational and investment decisions.

'Community pharmacy is absolutely critical in delivering the three shifts in healthcare envisaged by this Government. Ultimately, the sector urgently needs an uplift in funding so that patients can continue to access the medicines they need,' they said.

In response to the news of the new GP contract, Jay Badenhorst, director of pharmacy at the Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA), highlighted a 'troubling disparity' in support for the community pharmacy sector.

And he warned that this could threaten 'the collaborative nature of integrated care, potentially disrupting the continuity of care essential for patients with complex or long-term conditions'.

Meanwhile Paul Rees, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) said the move 'does nothing to reduce the chance of pharmacies being forced to take collective action to protect their services for patients'.