High street pharmacies are on the ‘brink’ of collapse, a damning report into the ‘critical’ pressures teams face ruled today.
The England-wide probe on staffing and morale in the sector has found 9 in 10 team members are struggling to cope with workload demands.
Seven in 10 pharmacy owners also regularly report staff shortages, with a tenth forced to close temporarily, according to the survey by industry body Community Pharmacy England (CPE).
One owner told MailOnline how he’s been so overwhelmed he hasn’t been able to take a day off in over three years.
Even then, the last break he had was a single day for the funeral of his 23-year-old son.
Others has been assaulted, with objects thrown at them or even punched amid rising levels of patient aggression, with incidents logged almost every week.
One owner, Anil Sharma (pictured), told MailOnline he has been assaulted, punched and had objects thrown at him amid rising levels of patient aggression, with incidents logged almost every week
The England-wide probe on staffing and morale in the sector has found nine in ten team members are struggling to cope with workload demands
The scathing report comes after it was revealed number of pharmacies in England is now at the lowest level in almost 20 years, with an average of seven of these vital services closing every week.
There are fears workplace pressures and aggression from frustrated patients could add to this trend, sparking a domino effect as remaining pharmacies have to pick up the slack.
Industry leaders labelled the findings ‘deeply concerning’ and called on the Government to urgently address the sector’s workforce shortages and ‘critical funding constraints’.
The Pharmacy Pressures Survey for England, polled more than 900 owners — representing more than 6,100 individual premises in England — as well as 2,000 staff.
More than three quarters admitted the pressures of their work had affected their mental health.
More than eight in 10 (86 per cent) said staff shortages had resulted in longer waiting times for patients getting medication or advice.
Almost two thirds (62 per cent) also reported a workforce shortfall meant they had also been forced to reduce the services they offer.
‘Community pharmacy staffing pressures and morale have reached an all-time low. This is pushing businesses to the brink,’ the report concluded.
One anonymous owner, who has run his pharmacy in Rotherham for seven years, told MailOnline he has only taken one day off this year — his mother’s funeral earlier this month.
Tragically, the 59-year-old’s last day off was in 2021 — the day of his 23-year-old son’s funeral.
On both occasions, he said, he couldn’t afford to even take bereavement leave, unable to pay the high rates demanded by locums.
He told MailOnline: ‘I just want something desperately to change. I haven’t even had time to grieve for my son. I’m just on a constant treadmill.
‘I would just love one good night’s sleep, I’d really love that.
He added: ‘I’ve had to bounce our costs around on different credit cards to stay afloat. I’ve got £25,000 worth of debt.
‘Despite things being as bad as they are now, there seems to be no sign of it getting any better.
Anil Sharma (pictured), who runs eight pharmacies across Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Suffolk, said his teams experience this abuse almost every week, but rarely is it reported to the police
‘I have thought about closure but I want to be in a position where my loans were paid off before I did that.’
Pharmacy owners are currently being balloted by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) over potential ‘work-to-rule’ action amid a row over funding with the Government.
Campaigners say the financial problems started with the new national contract in 2015 — which effectively cut pharmacies’ NHS income significantly and has not been adjusted for inflation or spiralling staff and fuel expenses.
The NPA is not a trade union, so any outcome of the ballot would be advisory.
But if backed, the NPA says the action — set to start before Christmas — could see pharmacies opening for shorter hours or potentially provide fewer services such as emergency contraception or withdrawing free deliveries for medication.
Yet the anonymous owner told MailOnline he could not afford to take part in any action.
‘I can’t get by as it is, I can’t my income fall in any any further,’ he said.
‘Pharmacies are way down the pecking order. We’re not even considered important.’
Another pharmacy owner, meanwhile, told how he has been assaulted, punched and even had medication bottles thrown at him amid rising levels of patient aggression.
Anil Sharma, who runs eight pharmacies across Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Suffolk, said his teams experience abuse almost every week.
He told MailOnline: ‘We’ve had two incidents in the past fortnight alone.
‘Mostly it’s people annoyed that their medication is not ready.
‘Medicines aren’t ready for so many reasons — you can’t get a drug or you’re a week behind with dispensing prescriptions because you’ve had so many of your staff members leave.
‘But people don’t care if they’re ill. They want their medication. We’ve stopped filing incidents to the police.
He explained this was due to both the paperwork involved and a lack of results.
‘We don’t have time and we don’t take patients to court because they’re patients, they’re ill.’
Record levels of staff shortages, that have seen him unable to recruit trained staff for over 18 months, have also seen Mr Sharma and his wife have to work ‘100 hours a week each, sometimes overnight’ to ensure the business keeps going.
He said: ‘The pharmacy workforce has been decimated to an unprecedented level.
NHS Business Services Authority data published in October shows in England just 11,414 community pharmacies remained in the 2022/23 financial year
‘I’ve been in pharmacy for 25 years and I’ve never known pressure like this. It’s a perfect storm. It’s a national scandal.
‘There have been weeks where we’ve worked through the night to try and keep up to date with the dispensing, so people were waiting too long.
‘Ultimately it’s our business. We put our life savings into these businesses and if we can’t keep them afloat, and all the patients leave us, then we have no business left.
‘It’s had a massive impact on my life.’
Responding to the survey results, Janet Morrison, chief executive of CPE, said: ‘We are deeply concerned about staff wellbeing and the negative impact that the current pressures are having on both the mental health of the community pharmacy workforce and on patient care.
‘Community pharmacy teams are working non-stop to protect their patients and local communities, but a workforce that is falling over does not support the delivery of quality patient care.
‘If pharmacy staff are overworked, understaffed, harassed and facing significant stress, it negatively affects their ability to meet patient needs.
‘If we want to make full use of the clinical skills of community pharmacists and their teams, we must address these workforce shortages, as well as the critical funding constraints and capacity issues, in the sector.’
Boots has closed branches en masse in recent months, while LloydsPharmacy has shut its doors completely. Pictured: a former LloydsPharmacy store in Bracknell, Berkshire
Paul Rees, Chief Executive of the NPA also told this website: ‘This report rightly highlights the significant workload and workforce challenges facing community pharmacy due to the impact of a decade of underfunding.
‘Pharmacies are having to manage significant higher workloads due to increased demand at the same time as navigating cuts to funding and difficulties in recruiting.
‘This is pushing many to the brink, with a record number of pharmacies closing just in the last year and others taking drastic steps to stay open.
‘To address this, the Government must provide community pharmacy with a new funding deal that halts the closures and allows pharmacies to cope with increases in demand.’
In August, the NPA also warned the number of pharmacies in England was now at the lowest level in almost 20 years, with an average of seven closing every week.
More than 1,500 have shut their doors since 2015, leaving just 10,054 open.
At this rate, numbers could fall below 10,000 for the first time since 2005, when there were 9,872, it said.
Boots has closed branches en masse in recent months, while LloydsPharmacy has shut its doors completely.