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Pharmacy owners are being left out of pocket by the current NHS schedule for reimbursement of dispensing costs, the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has said.
In a letter to pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock — sent on 10 December 2025 and posted on LinkedIn — Olivier Picard, chair of the NPA, said that pharmacies often have to pay wholesalers for medicines before they have been fully reimbursed by the NHS.
“This means that our members have no choice but to bridge the payment gap themselves from their own pockets,” the letter said.
“Our members, including myself, have had to resort to measures such as taking personal loans, cashing in pensions early, borrowing from family, and not taking a salary,” Picard added.
He warned that the situation may become worse since a pharmacy wholesaler announced on 9 December 2025 that it would be “requiring pharmacies to make their payments earlier than current arrangements, putting further pressure onto an already stained system”.
Currently, NHS pharmacies are reimbursed monthly for medicines dispensed, with prices set out in the Drug Tariff, which is updated on a monthly basis.
Picard’s letter called for Kinnock to “take urgent action to review the NHS payment schedule for community pharmacy dispensing services, in order to help pharmacies maintain medicines supply for patients and to help avoid very hard-pressed contractors having to further increase their borrowing”.
In a response to Picard’s post on LinkedIn, pharmacist Reena Barai said: “The pressure this creates is insufferable. With no reprieve in sight.”
Also responding on LinkedIn, Ashley Cohen, pharmacist and NPA board member, said: “When pharmacists are forced to take on personal financial risk just to keep essential services running, it highlights a system that is no longer functioning as intended.”
Community Pharmacy England’s ‘Pharmacy Pressures Survey 2025’, carried out between January and March 2025, revealed that nearly half (45%) of pharmacy owner respondents had relied on personal savings or remortgaged their homes to subsidise their pharmacy.
More than one-third (37%) said they had been unable to pay wholesaler bills on time for prescription medication supplies.
In October 2024, NHS Business Services Authority data showed that there had been a record number of prescriptions dispensed in England in 2024/2025, despite a reduction in the number of pharmacies.
