Cost of medicines blamed for pharmacy struggles
BBCThe rising cost of medicines and a lack of government funding were blamed by a pharmacist for the high number of pharmacy closures in a city.
Coventry is one of the places to have seen the most closures in the past three years, according to figures from the National Pharmacy Association (NPA).
Nishant Shah, from Acorn Pharmacy in Willenhall, said he thought "most firms either break even or are running a loss".
A spokesperson for the Department of Health (DoH) said they were increasing funding for community pharmacies to £3.1bn.
Shah said the main pressure for them as a business was financial.
"The remuneration of the drugs [is] not matching up to the market prices," he added.
"We're working on very old contracts and most firms, I don't think they're running a profit. I think most firms either break even or are running a loss."
About two-thirds of pharmacies in England in 2025 operated at a loss, a spokesperson for the NPA claimed.
The association represents about 6,000 independent pharmacies and chairman Olivier Picard said their data should set off "serious alarm bells" in government.
"Without urgent action, millions of patients risk losing the most accessible part of the NHS, their local pharmacy," he said.
"This is now a question of patient access and NHS resilience, not just pharmacy funding."
Shah said, while his customers were understanding, many other pharmacies experienced anger over the counter because patients were unable to get their medication.
"Patients struggle sometimes to find a pharmacy who has got stock and when they do have it in stock - sometimes they can't supply enough quantity," he added.
The DoH spokesperson said they were working to "turn around a decade of underfunding and neglect that left the sector on the brink of collapse".
"This year we increased community pharmacy funding to £3.1bn which is the largest uplift for any part of the NHS over the last two years," they added.
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