Following the Autumn Budget 2024, Malcolm Harrison, Chief Executive of the CCA said:
“Pharmacy businesses are very concerned about how measures announced in the budget will impact an industry already under considerable financial pressures. The community pharmacy sector has faced a decade of funding cuts amid a mounting NHS workload, and we have already seen a loss of 1,200 pharmacies from our communities since 2015. Increases to employer NIC, the national minimum wage and business rates will further negatively impact on investment and jobs across the pharmacy network.
As part of her first budget, the Chancellor also announced that funding for the NHS will increase by to £181.4bn in 2024-25 and to £192bn in 2025-26. If the government is serious about delivering its three big shifts in healthcare; hospital to community, analogue to digital and sickness to prevention, they must now invest in community pharmacies.
Pharmacies provide healthcare professionals for every local community. Our members have all invested heavily in infrastructure and technology to enhance efficiencies and improve productivity, and pharmacists specialise in delivering preventative health care. Community pharmacy can help the NHS to deliver for the public, but to do so the government must now invest in this vital sector”.