A CAMPAIGN for more local pharmacies has been joined by Rugby’s MP, amid what he describes as an ‘untenable’ shortage in the town.
Mark Pawsey has joined with pharmacists in Westminster to call for improvements to pharmacy services.
He with the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp) at the launch of its Fight4Pharmacies campaign, which is warning of a ‘tsunami of further pharmacy closures across the country’ as the sector ‘buckles under increasing pressure’.
Mr Pawsey has highlighted the closure of a number of pharmacies in Rugby which has put pressure on those remaining.
During a House of Commons debate, he highlighted the long queues being experienced at some pharmacies following the closures.
Mr Pawsey said: “The recent closures of pharmacies such as Lloyds in Sainsbury’s and Rowlands Pharmacy has put increasing pressure on primary healthcare in Rugby.
“That is why I have been calling on the Health and Wellbeing Board and the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board to urgently review pharmacy provision locally.”
During the launch of the Fight4Pharmacies campaign, he discussed how the government could deliver the Pharmacy First programme – which shifts some healthcare services to pharmacies to take pressure off GPs.
But the AIMp says the initiative had worsened the pressure on pharmacies, with recent figures suggesting the 58 pharmacy closures across the Midlands from 2019-23 had resulted in over 490,000 extra GP appointments.
AIMp CEO Dr Leyla Hannbeck urged the government to reduce the NHS backlog by addressing the shortfall in funding which AIMp says is in excess of £1.2billion.
She said: ‘We are in the midst of a crisis in community pharmacy, and it feels like the government are wilfully overlooking it.
“Chronic underfunding is placing an unsustainable financial burden on community pharmacies, risking an avalanche of closures.
“Community pharmacies are closing their doors in record numbers and it is patients in our towns and communities who are suffering.
“The path we are on is unsustainable and it is time for the government to recognise this.”
An AIMp spokesperson added: “If no action is taken, a wave of further closures will squeeze our primary healthcare services further, with disastrous consequences for the health outcomes of patients.”
