Over on the Midweek Herald, Richard Foord MP writes about the threat to high street pharmacies:
…these important facilities are under threat, and we are risk seeing them disappear from some of our high streets altogether. More than 1,000 pharmacies across England have shut their doors since 2015 and many more are facing an uncertain future as funding for these services has been cut by 30 per cent in real terms over the past seven years. There’s a vacancy rate of 14 per cent in community pharmacies in the West Country, compared to eight per cent across the UK. Communities like Axminster have already seen one of their pharmacies closed, leaving residents having to queue out of the door to get help from the sole remaining pharmacy in town, and in Sidmouth the news that Boots was giving up on their Woolbrook Road pharmacy caused considerable concern.
You can read the full article here.
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6 Comments
This trend seems particularly worrying as the Government appears to want people who feel unwell to make the pharmacy their first port of call, rather than the GP surgery.
There’s a shortage of GPs; pharmacies are closing and the Government (and I use the term loosely) wants to stop taking National Insurance Contributions, from which I believe State Pensions and some welfare benefits are paid.
Is there a long-term plan here, I ask myself?
@David Goble
“Government appears to want people who feel unwell to make the pharmacy their first port of call, rather than the GP surgery.”
Is there an implication that, even if you feel only slightly unwell, you should always be able to see the GP? When you might actually only need some paracetamol or something like that?
@ Nonconformistradical.
I fully agree with you; I have a friend who is a single parent and has a number of young children. She has complained about not being able to get a Doctor’s appointment and I have advised her to go to the pharmacy as they should be able to give either treatment or advice as to what is the next best step.
My main thrust is that the Government appears to be ignoring the number of pharmacies that are closing; ignoring the shortage of Doctors and is now talking about stopping the funding, through NI contributions, of what is, for many a financial lifeline. and I wonder, seriously, if the aim is that we should eventually live in a country where there are no welfare or old-age benefits or State supported income.
@David Goble
“I wonder, seriously, if the aim is that we should eventually live in a country where there are no welfare or old-age benefits or State supported income.”
You might think that – I couldn’t possibly comment!
@David Goble: Seems quite a stretch to leap from pharmacies closing to thinking that this means the Government are planning to abolish old-age pensions. Especially when the Tories have just said that they plan to keep the triple lock on pensions.
It’s certainly bad that pharmacies are closing – that’s something we should be protesting about/looking at how we can stop that happening, but let’s keep things in perspective!
Why are pharmacies closing.? Presumably it’s to do with their finances. Pharmacies have a private model while serving a public good. We need to look at the funding model. They should be funded to the extent that they perform that service. The challenge is doing that without interfering in their commercial independence.