South Warwickshire’s pharmacists under pressure as funding crisis hits
PHARMACISTS in south Warwickshire are waiting to see the details of the government’s proposal to give them extra responsibilities before pronouncing judgement on it.
But one thing they’re all agreed on is that pharmacy is facing a crisis – and one pharmacist told the Herald that it was “the most difficult time” she’d known in her long career in the business.
As far as these health professionals are concerned “the devil is in the detail” because the government is asking them to take on an additional workload at a time when pharmacies are already overstretched and a lot of them are closing down.
On 9th May, health secretary Steve Barclay announced in the Commons that the government was providing £645 million for community pharmacies over the next two years. The investment is part of a new government and NHS blueprint to improve access to primary care, which will allow pharmacists to prescribe medication directly for patients with seven common ailments – earache, sore throat, sinusitis, the skin condition impetigo, shingles, infected insect bites and uncomplicated urinary tract infections.
But Guriq Randhawa, manager of Bidford Pharmacy, told the Herald what all pharmacists have been telling us – there is chronic underfunding of the service.
He said: “The main thing is funding. Margins have been stripped significantly over the past few years. Considering the billions given to companies during the pandemic with no history of providing masks, we stayed open throughout the pandemic and we’re suffering from underfunding.
“I read recently that doctors are being given £240 million to upgrade their phone systems to enable them to not answer the phone! If I upgrade my phone, I have to pay for it myself.”
Guriq added: “It’s not all the government’s fault. Wholesalers have had too much power with the manipulation of prices.”
He said pharmacy was underfunded “top to bottom”. And he said that the reimbursement for prescription items that pharmacies had to procure “comes down every year”.
Guriq said he and his staff were handling more prescriptions than ever. The authorities didn’t seem to realise there were only so many hours in the day.
He said Tuesday was his busiest day and he would spend nine hours checking prescriptions. Asked what he thought of the government’s recent proposal, Guriq said: “In theory it is good, in practice it isn’t so good. All ideas are good ideas until you have to implement them.”
He added: “There needs to be an uplift in funding across the pharmacy board, to reflect the increasing costs like staff, energy prices and procurement of medication.” And he cited blood pressure tests, smoking cessation courses and annual ‘flu jabs as examples of extra work now being done by pharmacies.
Any money from the government, he said, would need to come in the form of continual funding, not just a one-off.
Another south Warwickshire pharmacist, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “Obviously we welcome the opportunity to offer more services to the patients and take on increased roles, but there needs to be appropriate funding and a recognition of the funding issues we face.
“We have a full-time job as it is, to fit everything into a day’s work, and there needs to be more conversations with the people who will be providing the service.”
One classic example of the crisis facing pharmacy is in Alcester, where the local Lloyds branch in the High Street was due to shut up shop until it was rescued from closure by the people who run the Hopkins Pharmacy at the medical centre on the edge of the town.
It is now called the Alcester Pharmacy after being taken over in February, and the pharmacist there, Jon Worton, told the Herald: “We saved this one for the people of Alcester.”
Jon pointed out that if the High Street pharmacy had closed – and a lot of Lloyds chemists throughout the country have been shutting down – it would have meant a three-mile round trip to the other pharmacy in the town, which would have been a problem for people with disabilities.
For Jon it is very early days as far as the government’s proposal is concerned – with details like funding, training, record-keeping and other issues of co-ordinated administration all needing to be examined in order to make sure it will work.
Sunny Sidhu, who works at Stratford Pharmacy in Stratford High Street, told the Herald: “We don’t know where this is going with this new announcement. We’re trying to be involved in the bigger picture and helping with patients’ health care, but we don’t know how we will deliver this without the funding.”
He added: “Pharmacies are closing down through lack of funding. It’s not a viable business any more. People are losing money.
“Pharmacy is definitely facing a crisis. The pressures are increasing on pharmacies and pharmacy staff. We really can’t afford to employ more staff because of the lack of funding. We have to enrol them on courses and pay for them – and that is, of course, at our cost. I’m not sure in which direction it is heading at the moment, to be fair.”
Kathryn Allen, pharmacist at the Wellesbourne Pharmacy at Hastings House Medical Centre, told the Herald that most pharmacies had only one fully-qualified pharmacist on staff because they couldn’t afford to have any more.
Regarding the government’s proposal to give pharmacies an extra workload, Kathryn said: “We have great difficulty providing the services already, particularly when there’s a Bank Holiday. You can’t fit five days into four days!”
Kathryn said pharmacies needed better funding and more staff. Her pharmacy in Wellesbourne currently employed six staff, including herself as the pharmacist. “At the moment I have to deal with all the checking of prescriptions as well as all the other services such as blood pressure monitoring, referrals from GPs and 111 calls for minor ailments,” she said.
Each consultation with a patient could take 15 minutes. “The other day we had four patients with urinary infections in just one day,” she said. “That’s an hour out of the day when you can’t be checking that the prescriptions that have been dispensed have been done properly.”
Kathryn made the point that pharmacists were not employed by the NHS but had to provide NHS services by law. “The way pharmacies are funded is through the cost of medication,” she said.
Prices are set by the
Guriq said he and his staff were handling more prescriptions than ever. The authorities didn’t seem to realise there were only so many hours in the day.
He said Tuesday was his busiest day and he would spend nine hours checking prescriptions. Asked what he thought of the government’s recent proposal, Guriq said: “In theory it is good, in practice it isn’t so good. All ideas are good ideas until you have to implement them.”
He added: “There needs to be an uplift in funding across the pharmacy board, to reflect the increasing costs like staff, energy prices and procurement of medication.” And he cited blood pressure tests, smoking cessation courses and annual ‘flu jabs as examples of extra work now being done by pharmacies.
Any money from the government, he said, would need to come in the form of continual funding, not just a one-off.
Another south Warwickshire pharmacist, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “Obviously we welcome the opportunity to offer more services to the patients and take on increased roles, but there needs to be appropriate funding and a recognition of the funding issues we face.
“We have a full-time job as it is, to fit everything into a day’s work, and there needs to be more conversations with the people who will be providing the service.”
One classic example of the crisis facing pharmacy is in Alcester, where the local Lloyds branch in the High Street was due to shut up shop until it was rescued from closure by the people who run the Hopkins Pharmacy at the medical centre on the edge of the town.
It is now called the Alcester Pharmacy after being taken over in February, and the pharmacist there, Jon Worton, told the Herald: “We saved this one for the people of Alcester.”
Jon pointed out that if the High Street pharmacy had closed – and a lot of Lloyds chemists throughout the country have been shutting down – it would have meant a three-mile round trip to the other pharmacy in the town, which would have been a problem for people with disabilities.
For Jon it is very early days as far as the government’s proposal is concerned – with details like funding, training, record-keeping and other issues of co-ordinated administration all needing to be examined in order to make sure it will work.
Sunny Sidhu, who works at Stratford Pharmacy in Stratford High Street, told the Herald: “We don’t know where this is going with this new announcement. We’re trying to be involved in the bigger picture and helping with patients’ health care, but we don’t know how we will deliver this without the funding.”
He added: “Pharmacies are closing down through lack of funding. It’s not a viable business any more. People are losing money.
“Pharmacy is definitely facing a crisis. The pressures are increasing on pharmacies and pharmacy staff. We really can’t afford to employ more staff because of the lack of funding. We have to enrol them on courses and pay for them – and that is, of course, at our cost. I’m not sure in which direction it is heading at the moment, to be fair.”
Kathryn Allen, pharmacist at the Wellesbourne Pharmacy at Hastings House Medical Centre, told the Herald that most pharmacies had only one fully-qualified pharmacist on staff because they couldn’t afford to have any more.
Regarding the government’s proposal to give pharmacies an extra workload, Kathryn said: “We have great difficulty providing the services already, particularly when there’s a Bank Holiday. You can’t fit five days into four days!”
Kathryn said pharmacies needed better funding and more staff. Her pharmacy in Wellesbourne currently employed six staff, including herself as the pharmacist. “At the moment I have to deal with all the checking of prescriptions as well as all the other services such as blood pressure monitoring, referrals from GPs and 111 calls for minor ailments,” she said.
Each consultation with a patient could take 15 minutes. “The other day we had four patients with urinary infections in just one day,” she said. “That’s an hour out of the day when you can’t be checking that the prescriptions that have been dispensed have been done properly.”
Kathryn made the point that pharmacists were not employed by the NHS but had to provide NHS services by law. “The way pharmacies are funded is through the cost of medication,” she said.
Prices are set by the Department of Health and Social Care and are detailed each month in the drug tariff, which NHS Business Services Authority publishes.
“These prices are set so our profits can’t get any higher to get more staff,” she said.
Of her own business Kathryn said: “This pharmacy is incredibly busy. The average pharmacy deals with 8,000 prescriptions a month. We deal with about 13,000.
“I agree there’s a crisis that’s got to be dealt with. Staff are underpaid and recruitment is difficult because of that. Luckily I have loyal staff who have been here forever! But as a result of the funding problem recruitment is a problem as well.”
Correction: The original article stated drug prices were set by the NHS Business Services Authority. They are, in fact, set by the Department of Health and Social Care. We apologise for the mistake.
