Sarah Dyke, Liberal Democrat MP for Somerton and Frome and candidate for Glastonbury at the next election, has demanded emergency funding from Government to keep community pharmacies open. Pharmacies across the country are being forced to close due to financial difficulties, leaving many communities without convenient and accessible healthcare services. Two of Glastonbury's three pharmacies shut their doors in 2023 and the town now has no chemist on the high street.

When inflation and increases in business and staffing costs are taken into account, funding for community pharmacy is decreasing year on year, according to Community Pharmacy England (CPE). The five-year NHS contractual framework under which community pharmacies operate was agreed in July 2019, before the pandemic, and comes to an end in March 2024. 

During the period of the five-year agreement, Community Pharmacy England says that core funding dropped by 30% in real terms. Pharmacies have faced soaring costs, driven in large part by inflation and the workforce crisis, and face uncertainty about funding levels beyond March. 

Unlike typical businesses, pharmacies are unable to raise their prices to their primary customers (NHS patients) to address the funding squeeze. The second largest chain of high street pharmacies, Lloyds Pharmacy, recently left the market, 236 pharmacies in Sainsburys stores have closed and Boots has announced 300 further closures. 

Community pharmacies are vital to our health service and our high streets. Millions of people rely on their local pharmacies for over-the-counter everyday medicines, regular prescriptions and reassuring advice on a walk-in basis. 

The Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to provide urgent emergency funding to keep local pharmacies open, and reverse closures where they are needed, to implement a long-term plan for pharmacy services, to put in place a review of the pressures facing pharmacies in England and to create more training places and incentives to attract medical graduates and professionals to work in pharmacies.

Sarah Dyke, MP for Somerton and Frome and the candidate for Glastonbury at the next election, said: "Local pharmacies provide a vital frontline health service. With GP appointments scarce and other health services stretched beyond breaking point, it is more important than ever that community pharmacies are supported. But the sad reality is that this Government undervalues them. 

"Time and again, the Conservatives treat community pharmacies as an afterthought. Even now, when they're under critical pressure and closing their doors, the Government won't step in with emergency funding or provide them with the clarity they need about their funding beyond March. 

"The Liberal Democrats believe we need a long-term plan for community pharmacies, a review of the extraordinary pressures they're facing and more training places and incentives to attract people into the profession."

Mike Hewitson, independent pharmacy contractor, said: "I've been a pharmacist for more than 20 years and I've never known it this bad. I want to focus on helping my patients, but I can't if I'm struggling to keep the lights on. We're having to cut services, and introduce new charges for patients, many of whom will have to make difficult choices between their health and their heating this winter. 

"Our funding has been fixed for the last 5 years, while costs such as the National Living Wage have increased hugely. It is now impossible to make ends meet. We need urgent and substantial help to make our sector sustainable and safe so that we can support GPs and social care. Where do my patients go if they no longer have a pharmacy?"