Pharmacy strike plan: what would 'collective action' mean for you and what services are affected?

• Pharmacies across the UK have voted to reduce hours in historic strike action.
• 99% of pharmacy owners said they were willing to limit services in the interests of patient safety unless the government improves funding.
• Pharmacies in England have seen funding cut by 40 per cent in the last decade.
• 700 pharmacies have closed their doors in England in the last two years.

Pharmacies across the UK have voted to reduce hours and limit services in the interests of patient safety within weeks if funding improvements are not met by the government.

The historic action, which was voted for in a ballot by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), saw 99% of pharmacy owners from England, Wales and Northern Ireland vote in favour of the first collective strike in their history.

The NPA has urged the government to meet and discuss an uplift in funding for pharmacies, warning that without this being delivered in the coming weeks, they would have no choice but to recommend pharmacies to withdraw services to patients.

It comes at the same time the government budget announced the rise in National Insurance contributions and the National Living Wage, however unlike other areas of the NHS there has been no commitment to supporting pharmacies with these price rises.

Funding for pharmacies in England have seen their funding cut by 40 per cent in the last decade according to the NPA, with 700 pharmacies closing their doors for good in the last two years.

What does the pharmacy strike mean for you?

The results of the vote mean that pharmacies could reduce their opening hours and may close their doors earlier or no longer open on the weekends. 3,049 independent community pharmacies in England alone or 3,399 pharmacies including Wales and Northern Ireland took part in the vote.

Pharmacy owners in England have voted to:

• serve notice on opening hours above the minimum required by their contract – meaning fewer pharmacies will be open in the evenings and at weekends.
• withdraw making free home deliveries of medicines which are not funded.
• 96.1% voted to withdraw from locally commissioned services, including some local addiction support services, emergency contraception and stop smoking support.
• 99.2% voted to refuse to co-operate with certain data requests above those required for patient safety and contractual minimums.
• 96.8% voted to withdraw from supplying free monitored dose systems (medicine packs) that the NHS do not pay them to provide, other than those covered by the Disability Discrimination Act.

They also voted in favour of a motion saying pharmacy owners “cannot guarantee community pharmacy services will remain safe into the future if the current depressed funding, pharmacy closures and increasing workload continues”.

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Over the last decade, over 1,250 pharmacies have closed, with 700 closing in the last two years alone - the equivalent of seven a week.

Pharmacies play a key role in helping to alleviate the pressure on the NHS, with the Pharmacy First scheme which was launched in January 2024 enabling people to skip the queue to the GP and access a diagnosis and treatment from their pharmacist for common ailments from sore throats to uncomplicated urinary tract infections.

National Pharmacy Association Chair Nick Kaye said: “Pharmacies desperately want to support their local communities with access to medicines and advice but have been forced into an untenable position by a decade of underfunding which has led to a record number of closures.”

We’d love to hear from you! Has your local pharmacy closed, how do you feel about the proposed reduced hours? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.