“The financial pressures caused by the delays in fair funding have forced us into heart-wrenching decisions,” central London pharmacy owner Sukhi Basra says.  

“The prolonged delays in contract negotiations for community pharmacies in England have left us fighting not only for our livelihood but also for the very essence of what we’ve built,” she adds.  

Read more: NPA issues pharmacy collective action ultimatum  

Basra usually works alongside her husband in their pharmacy but due to the financial strain of funding delays, he has been forced to work as a locum elsewhere to “secure enough income to survive”. 

“We’ve poured our lives into this work, and all we’re asking for is fairness,” she says, “the government and NHS must recognise the value of what we do and act before it’s too late”. 

“We feel abandoned” 

“We’ve spent years building relationships, supporting our patients and making our pharmacy a place we could rely on – but now, we feel abandoned by the very system we’ve supported,” Basra says.  

“We’ve never hesitated to make sacrifices because we believed in the difference we were making,” she adds, but warns that without support, “the communities we serve will lose a vital lifeline and families like ours will be left wondering why our sacrifices weren’t enough”.  

And Basra is not the only one who has faced such hardship in recent times.  

Read more: NPA gives DH ‘time to digest’ results of 99% ‘Yes’ collective action ballot 

Leeds pharmacy owner Ashley Cohen has had to borrow £125k since last January just “to get us through the year”.  

And Kevin Simpson, a pharmacy owner in Sunderland, says he will have to reduce opening hours to survive.  

He calls on the government to release funds “immediately” and “re-energise our profession to help fix the NHS”.  

“Money and certainty are owed to us,” he adds. 

“Cliff edge” 

“The fact we are now into 2025 without the government sitting down with our negotiating body leaves me incredulous,” Cohen says.  

“I am looking at April with the introduction of the national insurance contributions (NICs) and increase in the national living wage as a cliff edge,” he adds.  

Read more: IPA warns ‘wrecking ball’ budget will cost sector over £125m 

And South London pharmacy owner Reena Barai highlighted that in “this current climate...pharmacies [are] closing at a rate of seven a week”, adding that the proposed increase in NICs will be a “huge blow” for pharmacy owners.  

“This spells disaster for the local pharmacy network across the country,” she stresses.  

Collective action ultimatum  

It comes as the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) today (January 8) warned that it will have “little choice but to advise pharmacies to take collective action later this month” if delays to the pharmacy contract negotiations continue.  

The NPA’s November ballot – which gave members the opportunity to protest against ongoing delays to NHS pharmacy funding – received near unanimous support in favour of collective action.  

Read more: Saturday shutdown: Pharmacy protest ballot could see weekend closures 

But chief executive Paul Rees said at the time that the body was “looking at January” to make any recommendations on collective action, “giving the government the chance to digest the results”. 

The government, however, has neither responded to the ballot nor started funding negotiations for this financial year “despite numerous assurances from ministers,” the NPA said today.