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Community pharmacy’s role in dispensing NHS-prescribed medicines is “under threat” and requires “urgent action”, according a report published by the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA).
‘The value of community pharmacy dispensing’, published on 29 January 2026, has called for the government to safeguard and strengthen the “essential role” of dispensing to meet its ambitions in the NHS ten-year health plan.
Despite dispensing saving taxpayers more than £750m each year — including the prevention of 610,000 prescribing errors each year, as well as incidents which would have cost the NHS nearly £600m — the volume of NHS-prescribed medicines has jumped 17% in the past decade, the report said.
The CCA added that the single activity fee only rose by 21p between April 2017 — when it was introduced — and April 2025, with inflation increasing by almost 35% in the same time period.
The report expressed that these challenges are “placing a huge strain on community pharmacies, and their core function of dispensing, and require urgent action from the government”.
The government’s ten-year health plan for England states that, over the next five years, community pharmacy will “transition … from being focused largely on dispensing medicines to becoming integral to the neighbourhood health service, offering more clinical services”.
The CCA report also contends that dispensing — which accounts for 85% of community pharmacy funding in England — remains a fundamental part of this transition.
As a result, the report urges the government to take three steps to safeguard dispensing. The steps include “immediate funding” to close the gap between the cost of NHS dispensing and what the NHS pays for it, expanding independent prescribing training to strengthen clinical capacity and giving pharmacists access to a single shared patient record to make interventions visible across care settings.
Malcolm Harrison, chief executive of the CCA, said: “The report underscores the vital role of community pharmacies today and the critical role they will play in helping to deliver the government’s ten-year plan.
“Dispensing, while often undervalued and overlooked, provides enormous benefits to patients, the NHS and taxpayers. Decades of underfunding have weakened the sector, and without urgent investment and reform, patient access to essential services will be at risk.”
Commenting on the report, Amandeep Doll, director for England at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said: “Dispensing remains a vital clinical and patient-safety function in community pharmacy. Pharmacy teams routinely identify prescribing issues, support safe and effective use of medicines and provide one of the most accessible points of care for patients.
“Pharmacist independent prescribing, alongside access to shared patient records and appropriate digital tools can improve patient access to care and reduce pressure in other parts of the health system. This requires sustainable investment in the workforce, digital capability and the systems that support safe dispensing.”
Henry Gregg, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association, said: “It is absolutely right to remind government and the NHS that dispensing is a vital NHS service that saves lives — it is not just a matter of procuring and distributing widgets. Supplying and dispensing medicine is hugely skilled work that protects people and helps them get the most out of their medication.
“It’s essential that this vital service to millions of people is funded properly alongside the clinical services that will expand accession to people in communities up and down the country.”
Janet Morrison, chief executive of Community Pharmacy England (CPE), said: “[The report] provides yet more evidence of what community pharmacy teams experience every day: dispensing is a critical and highly skilled service that delivers enormous value to patients, the NHS and wider society. But it also confirms the stark reality that this essential service is under extreme pressure after years of underfunding.
“Sustained investment, fairer reimbursement arrangements and operational reforms are urgently needed to keep pharmacies open and patients safe. CPE will continue to use evidence like this to press government for meaningful action. The future stability of medicines access and supply depends on it.”
Morrison wrote to the government on 23 January 2026 to warn that community pharmacies across England were in “real economic peril”, calling for an urgent roadmap to recovery.
