Monday 28 November 2022 10:35 PM Pharmacies are LOSING money on drugs issued on NHS prescriptions trends now
As a carer for vulnerable patients, many with multiple health complaints, Julia Lovett couldn’t properly see to their needs without the support of her local pharmacy.
To her, easy access to medical supplies, from dressings to needles, is vital, as her patients — who all have dementia — are often in ‘very distressing physical situations’, she says.
And more often than not, they urgently need medical supplies outside normal working hours — so the fact that Moin’s Chemist in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, where Julia lives and works, is open from 7.30am to 11pm, six days a week, and until 6pm on a Sunday, provides huge peace of mind.
‘This isn’t a nine-to-five job but thankfully the pharmacy doesn’t just keep nine-to-five hours, and the people who work there are just so pleasant and helpful. It really lifts the heart,’ explains Julia, 70.
As a carer for vulnerable patients, many with multiple health complaints, Julia Lovett couldn’t properly see to their needs without the support of her local pharmacy. She is pictured above with founder Moinuddin Kolia. It is usually very busy — but it faces a bleak future
The community spirit fostered by the pharmacy staff is vital, too, says Julia, who lives in the town with her husband Monty, 73.
‘Often I’ll get a call on the way to work saying clients need particular medical supplies. I can call Moin’s and ask them to get everything ready for me. I couldn’t phone ahead to a large chain. With my local pharmacy, they know me.’
Besides dispensing medication, the pharmacy, founded ten years ago by Moinuddin Kolia, 51, and a small group of fellow pharmacists, provides free hearing tests, a blood pressure clinic and free earwax removal. It is usually very busy — but it faces a bleak future.
The problem, is partly, spiralling drug prices. ‘Only the other week, I had a prescription for a drug for a four-year-old with asthma, which had previously been £5 but had shot up to £58,’ says Kolia, who regularly works 50-hour weeks.
‘I had to dispense it because my conscience wouldn’t let me do otherwise. But the Government will only reimburse us for £53, as that is the price it has settled at. If this keeps happening, pharmacies like mine will develop cashflow problems and may even go under.’
Julia fears what would happen if Moin’s closed: ‘This pharmacy is utterly irreplaceable,’ she says.
But many communities are losing this vital lifeline as increasing numbers of independent, largely family-run, pharmacies buckle under financial pressures.
The Mail has now launched a campaign to save them before it’s too late. We are calling on readers to write to their MP (see letter template, right) to protect these important small businesses.
Independent community pharmacists report that for every NHS prescription they dispense, they lose about 73p because, while the NHS contract pays £1.27 per prescription, dispensing it can cost about £2, including overheads such as staff costs and specialised computer systems
One of those fearing for his future is Graham Phillips, 63. In the past two years he has had to close seven of the ten community pharmacies he slowly built from scratch over four decades — the other three are ‘haemorrhaging’ money and may soon follow suit.
He blames this entirely on severe government underfunding and a five-year freeze in NHS payments. ‘We’re basically living on air,’ Phillips tells Good Health.
Some fear that many of the 6,600 independent community pharmacies in England are under threat of extinction, leaving those who depend on them lacking desperately needed prescriptions, advice and practical health support.
It’s estimated that a third are no longer viable
