LOCAL MP Rachel Gilmour has met with pharmacists during a Parliamentary event to learn more about the work they do and listen to their concerns for the future.

The event was organised by Community Pharmacy England to showcase how residents can benefit from a range of healthcare services provided by pharmacies.

Mrs Gilmour represents West Somerset and parts of the Culm Valley and Blackdown Hills and a number of parishes bordering Wellington, a constituency which has 15 pharmacies.

She spoke with pharmacy owners and their representatives who explained they did much more than ‘just hand out medicines’, with 56 million people a year nationally going straight to a pharmacy as their first healthcare port of call.

Pharmacies did everything from giving advice on treating common conditions and offering NHS flu jabs to supporting those with long-term health conditions, and played a central role in local healthcare, saving millions of GP appointments every year.

Mrs Gilmour was told the service was risk due to extreme pressures on pharmacies following a more than 30 per cent real-terms funding cut since 2016.

More than 1,200 pharmacies had closed in England since then, including one in Mrs Gilmour’s Tiverton and Minehead constituency.

Mrs Gilmour heard that in less than a decade the proportion of NHS funding for pharmacies had fallen from 2.4 per cent to 1.6 per cent, with an average pharmacy relying on NHS money for 90 per cent of its income.

Pharmacies operated many services but availability was steadily decreasing with opening times cut either through temporary or permanent closure.

Mrs Gilmour said: “It was great to hear more about the crucial role community pharmacies play in Tiverton and Minehead.

“Pharmacy teams are doing great work delivering care closer to home, but I heard loudly and clearly that more support is needed to ensure they are able to continue to provide what the NHS and, crucially, members of the public, need.

“I will continue to call on the Government to increase the budget for pharmacies across the country, with a backdated level of funding from April, 2024

“The Government also needs to seriously consider increasing the budget for our vital pharmacies to be in line with inflation for 2025-26.

“With improved Government backing, pharmacies across Tiverton and Minehead and all over the UK can continue their crucial work and prevent unnecessary strains on the NHS further down the line.”