MP for Tiverton and Minehead, Rachel Gilmour, has called for improved funding settlements for pharmacies across Devon and Somerset.

The Lib Dem MP also wants to see retrospective uplifts in pay, backdated to April 2024 and for future investment to be in line with inflation, if not higher.

Mrs Gilmour has been campaigning for improved funding for pharmacies since her election, including holding a Westminster Hall debate in December, which focussed on the issues involving Community Pharmacies in the south west of England.

According to the House of Commons Library, there are 15 pharmacies that operate across the Tiverton and Minehead constituency. In under a decade, the proportion of NHS funding on pharmacies has fallen from 2.4 per cent to 1.6 per cent, with an average pharmacy relying on NHS funding for 90 per cent of its income.

Pharmacies operate many services in our care sector, yet in recent years, the hours lost from pharmacy opening times has been steadily increasing, either through temporary or permanent closure.

Without substantive redress, MP’s including Rachel Gilmour are questioning the financial sustainability of pharmacies, calling on the Government to address the problem.

Ms Gilmour says that this issue is especially prevalent in rural areas, where there is often either a pharmacy or a dispensing GP surgery in a community, meaning that area’s access to potentially life saving, or life altering medication, hangs on the viability of the pharmacy system.

MP for Tiverton and Minehead, Rachel Gilmour, said: “The 15 community pharmacies across Tiverton and Minehead do invaluable work, day in day out, offering a vital service to their communities.

“However, as I raised in the Westminster Hall debate in December, pharmacies are under threat from the economic environment in which they now operate. Core pharmacy funding has decreased in real terms by more than 30 per cent since 2016, whilst costs have continued to increase.

“I am calling 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 2025/2026.

“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. Without it, we will continue to see pharmacies closing, and withdrawing some opening hours, and all of the difficulties that this causes for ordinary people.”

On Monday, January 27, the government began discussions with Community Pharmacy England (CPE) regarding the 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026 funding contractual framework.

Moving the focus of care from hospitals into the community is one of the 3 core shifts outlined in the current government’s 10 Year Health Plan, which will be published later this year.

Minister of State for Care, Stephen Kinnock said: “I am confident that together we can get the sector back on its feet and fit for pharmacies and patients long into the future.”