The latest list of the top 10 pharmacy blackspots in England has been revealed, after more than 200 pharmacies shut their doors in 2024.
Over 2024, pharmacies across the UK have faced a deepening crisis amid warnings that the sector is on the verge of collapse.
Analysis by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has revealed that four pharmacies in England shut permanently every week last year.
Some 222 pharmacies closed their doors in 2024 in England, the second-highest annual closure rate on record.
West Berkshire has overtaken Plymouth in terms of having the highest rate of pharmacy closure out of any council area in England, with Liverpool the third highest.
West Berkshire also has the fewest pharmacies per patient, according to the NPA’s analysis.
The top three areas hardest hit are followed by York, Darlington, Wakefield, Southend-on-Sea, Gateshead, Cornwall and Hull.
Cornwall, one of the most rural council areas with the most isolated patients, has seen a surge in pharmacy closures, with nine having shut in the past two years.
Oxfordshire and Berkshire have some of the lowest numbers of pharmacies per person.
West Berkshire, Wokingham, Bracknell Forest and Oxfordshire make up four of the top six areas for pharmacy deserts.
Nearly 90 per cent of council areas have seen at least one pharmacy shut permanently in just the past two years, the NPA said.
In total, nearly 700 pharmacies have closed since 2022, leaving England with its lowest number of pharmacies in nearly 20 years and forcing patients to travel record distances to access vital medicines.
Patients travel up to 40 miles for treatment
Pharmacy owners have previously told The i Paper of seeing patients travel up to 40 miles to find their treatment due to supply chain problems.
Last week, a coroner said a man died after his pharmacy ran out of epilepsy medication and he was instead left with an “IOU” note for the drugs.
David Crompton fell and suffered a fatal heart attack on 13 December after Midway Pharmacy in Pudsey, Leeds, was unable to supply him with “essential” drug Tegretol, according to a report by West Yorkshire’s senior coroner.
Kevin McLoughlin said in his Prevention of Future Deaths report that Mr Crompton, 44, had suffered a previous fall in 2024 after the same pharmacy ran out of the drug for over a week.
Rural patients face ‘blackouts’ as pharmacies threaten to cut key services
Read MoreThe coroner said pharmacists should have “clear designated systems” to deal with such shortages.
The NPA, who represent around half of the UK’s 12,000 pharmacies, have said that owners have been “pushed to breaking point” by 40 per cent real terms cuts to their funding and the ones still open are left “hanging on by their fingertips”.
Closures also put significant pressures on to neighbouring pharmacies and risk a domino effect, massively increasing workload and staffing costs without proper renumeration.
David Fothergill, chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “With healthcare services increasingly moving away from traditional settings like GP surgeries and hospitals to align with where people live, work, and shop, the closure of community pharmacies could have serious, unintended consequences on residents’ health and wellbeing.”
The NPA is calling for the Government to urgently start consultations on this year’s pharmacy funding settlement. The association warned that a deal which starts to reverse cuts was needed to avoid further pharmacy closures and the potential of the first “work to rule” style action in its history.
Pharmacy owners have voted in support of limiting their services in the interests of patient safety if improved funding is not forthcoming – meaning fewer pharmacies will be open in the evenings and at weekends as well voting to end free medicine deliveries, among other options.
The current funding settlement for community pharmacies in England expired on 31 March, 2024 and pharmacies have been working without a new settlement more than nine months into the financial year.
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The pharmacy contract funds 90 per cent of an average pharmacy’s activity, including covering the cost of medication as well as other NHS services, such as vaccination campaigns.
NPA chair Nick Kaye said: “These are stark figures, which show pharmacies are continuing to close in record numbers due to the impact of 40 per cent cuts to their budgets.
“Pharmacies that have remained open are left hanging on by their fingertips and could be forced to close without an urgent increase in their funding.
“It is patients that have lost out the most, with more people in isolated areas having to travel further for vital medication as well as access to medical advice convenient to them.
“Patience with the failure to commence consultations on the current year’s settlement has worn paper-thin and pharmacies simply cannot wait any longer for a settlement that should have been agreed and paid nearly more than a year ago.
“We’ve given the Government ample time to respond to the very clear expression of professional concern expressed in our ballot – now’s the time to come up with a sensible settlement and a clear roadmap to the reform we all want to see.”
The Department of Health and Social Care has been approached for comment.
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