NPA advises thousands of pharmacies to limit services from April 2025

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has advised its 6,000 member pharmacies in England to limit pharmacy services from 1 April 2025 “if no new and sufficient funding is delivered”.

In a statement published on 18 March 2025, the NPA said the action was being taken “to protect patients, in the absence of a financial settlement that covers a swathe of new costs due to hit pharmacies from the start of next month”.

It added that these costs include increases in national insurance, national living wage and business rates, “on top of a decade of real-terms cuts, which may jeopardise patient safety if a resolution is not found”.

The NPA first proposed collective action in September 2024, when it balloted members over limiting services in protest against pharmacy funding levels.

In response to the ballot, 98% of pharmacy owners in England voted in favour of the action.

The collective action could include closing outside minimum contract hours, withdrawing from locally commissioned services, providing free home deliveries and refusing to cooperate with some data requests.

In January 2025, the government announced that it had started negotiations with Community Pharmacy England (CPE) on the ‘Community pharmacy contractual framework’ for 2024/2025 and 2025/2026.

In its statement, the NPA said: “Although the end of the current financial year is just days away, pharmacies are yet to receive any confirmation of funding for either the 2024/2025 or 2025/2026 funding years that might allow them to avoid service reductions.

“The NPA is recommending that its members give notice of reducing opening hours or other services until a funding deal emerges that would allow them to meet additional cost pressures and maintain safe services to patients. That could involve fewer pharmacies opening in the evenings and at weekends, as well as limiting home deliveries and withdrawing from some locally commissioned schemes like addiction support,” it added.

“Safety is the top priority for every pharmacy so it is for each pharmacy to determine what action they can safely take and give patients and local NHS boards notice of any changes to ensure continuity of care. Pharmacies need to give the NHS five weeks’ notice of a change in hours.”

Nick Kaye, chair of the NPA, said: “This is not a step anyone of us wants to take, but we have been left with little choice because in just two weeks time, new business costs will be hitting local NHS pharmacies across the country. 

“It is better that we temporarily reduce access in the short term than to let pharmacies collapse altogether under the weight of unsustainable operating costs.”

In a briefing on the collective action held on 17 March 2025, Kaye said: “If a great funding deal comes out in the next few days, we won’t have to do anything on 1 April [2025].”

Commenting on the timing of the collective action, he said that the NPA had held back since the ballot to give the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and CPE time to come up with a deal, but that they had received “enough additional timing now”.

Referring to pharmacy owners, Kaye added that he was seeing “lots of broken people”.

“When you have financial worries, they invade every part of your world and every part of your life, they creep into everything actually. So when people are taking some of the actions that they’re taking, I have no problem in giving them some time back and protecting themselves in the short term, so that they’ll be here for the longer term,” he added.

Janet Morrison, chief executive of CPE, said: “All CPE committee members are fully aware of the sector’s urgent need for funding and of the need to resolve negotiations as robustly and speedily as possible to secure the best outcomes for pharmacy owners.

“We are not able to give a running commentary on negotiations, but as the secretary of state commented to Parliament last week — negotiations are ‘about to conclude’. It remains our goal to communicate with the sector as soon as possible, and before the start of the financial year.”

A spokesperson for the DHSC said: “Community pharmacy has a vital role to play as we shift the focus of the NHS out of hospitals and into the community, through our ‘Plan for change’.   

“We are currently engaging with the sector on a settlement that will start to make it fit for the future and able to provide the services that will benefit patients and the communities that they serve.

“The NPA’s pre-emptive action will cause unnecessary disruption for patients, and we urge them to reconsider.”