A CALL for better Government support for community pharmacies has been made by local MP Rachel Gilmour.

Mrs Gilmour secured her first Parliamentary debate in Westminster Hall when she said more support was needed ‘to fix the broken system of pharmacies’.

She asked for Government backing to help the sector move away from the brink, and toward ‘the fantastic role that it can and does play in our society’.

Mrs Gilmour laid out some of the stark challenges facing pharmacies in her Tiverton and Minehead constituency, and across the Westcountry and nationally.

She said pharmacy numbers were at their lowest in England since 2008-09, and yet were dispensing 40 per cent more prescriptions than they were at that time.

Tiverton and Minehead constituency pharmacies on average dispensed 7,545 prescriptions per month, along with providing hypertension blood pressure checks, and myriad other services.

Mrs Gilmour said such level of service in the current financial situation was unsustainable, and would only lead to pharmacies leaving the sector, or having to reduce their hours because they were unable to provide enough staff.

Figures from the Community Chemists’ Association showed that in the Westcountry 130,400 hours were lost between September, 2022, and June, 2024, due to pharmacies cutting their opening hours, with a further 195,600 hours lost to the permanent closure of pharmacies.

Mrs Gilmour said: “Without Government help and a review of the financial model on which pharmacies operate, the sector will continue to be under immense strain.

“I know how hard pharmacists work, and how vital community pharmacies are to the communities they serve, and they deserve a better deal from Government.”

Mrs Gilmour said there were, however, also opportunities to which the Government should be alive, such as the Pharmacy First scheme which provided a pathway to using pharmacies as a release point for some of the health service stresses.

Pharmacy First also freed up a reported 234 hours of GP time in the constituency in just its first three months this year and operated disproportionately in disadvantaged areas, as nearly a third of all appointments were provided in the 20 per cent most deprived communities.

West Somerset Opportunity Area was ranked 324 out of 324 in terms of social mobility by the Office of National Statistics, which showed it could greatly benefit from the scheme for more than the seven conditions currently allowed.

Mrs Gilmour said: “The massive potential for a scheme such as Pharmacy First is clear to me, especially as we know that it disproportionately benefits disadvantaged areas.

“The scheme will not work, however, if pharmacies are not put on a stable financial footing, and that should be part of the Government’s key missions, if they really want to support a ‘neighbourhood health service’, as they have said.

“We need the Government to step up, back pharmacies with the funding they need to keep doing their jobs, and allow them to step up, as they are clearly capable of doing, to help out the entirety of the health sector.”