Loss of high street pharmacies leaves patients with ‘deteriorating access to medicine’
The loss of high street pharmacies is leaving patients with “deteriorating access to medicines”, bosses have warned.
Regular users of local pharmacies face uncertainty with “critical services” closed and a “chronic shortage” of pharmacists.
More than 350 chemists have permanently closed their doors in the last year alone, The Telegraph can reveal, while high street favourite, Lloyds Pharmacy, has shut up shop altogether.
Chemist leaders said the loss of a major operator like Lloyds should act as a “wake-up call” to the Government and NHS.
Patients have told The Telegraph that they have been unable to pick up their prescriptions due to no pharmacist being present to dispense them.
Lloyds sold to independent owners
Lloyds, which opened its first chemist 50 years ago, was the second largest pharmacy chain in Britain earlier this year, behind only Boots, with 1,427 stores.
It has confirmed, having already announced the closure of all of its 237 chemists based in Sainsbury’s supermarkets, that the remaining 1,054 it owned have all been sold, as reported by Chemist and Druggist.
The Hallo Healthcare Group, parent company of Lloyds Pharmacy, said it had ensured “99 per cent of pharmacies will stay open and central to communities”.
It added that they had been sold to “independent owners and local entrepreneurs”.
The group, which was bought by German investment firm Aurelius in 2021, has been selling off sites throughout the year, and also sold its Lloyds Direct online service to rival Pharmacy2U.
“Whilst it may have left the high street, the LloydsPharmacy brand name and heritage remains in specialist pharmacy, clinical and digital healthcare,” a spokesman said.
Malcolm Harrison, chief executive of the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA), which represents Boots and Superdrug among others, said it was “very concerning” news and could affect “access to medicines”.
“It is obviously very concerning that the owner of such a large organisation has chosen to exit the community pharmacy market. Today’s announcement must serve as a wake-up call to the Government and NHS,” he said.
“Choosing not to properly fund pharmacies to supply NHS medicines is a false economy. Pharmacies currently supply over one billion NHS medicines each year to patients,” he added. “Access to medicines and other critical primary care services will continue to deteriorate as more and more pharmacies close”.
Chemist numbers consistently fall
It comes against a wider trend of chemist closures with 361 local pharmacies permanently closing since November 2022.
At the end of October, there were 10,307 across the country, but the number has consistently fallen over the last two years, according to NHS data.
The CCA says more than 1,000 have closed since 2015 due to a “30 per cent real terms funding cut”.
The loss of pharmacies is mirrored by a loss of pharmacists, with one in three chemists no longer employing a permanent pharmacist.
An NHS scheme to recruit non-medics to GP practices has seen a surge in pharmacists leaving community pharmacies for doctor surgeries.
Earlier this week Mr Harrison told MPs that the NHS had “robbed Peter to pay Paul” and created a “chronic shortage” of pharmacists for the chemists.
Dr Graham Stretch, the president of the Primary Care Pharmacy Association, said that more than 3,000 community pharmacists had left to join a GP practice.
A Department of Health spokesman said: “Community pharmacies play a vital role in our healthcare system, backed by £2.6 billion a year.
“We have also announced £645 million in additional funding to support community pharmacies to supply prescription-only medicines for seven common conditions, which will free up GP capacity.
“We are also making it easier for patients to see their GP and in September there were 135,000 more appointments per working day compared to a year ago.”
