Pharmacies vote to reduce services in first-of-it’s-kind protest action

Local TV

The government said it was looking to make fundamental reforms in the system which had been neglected for too long, but what do you think? How do you think the possibility of cutting opening hours at pharmacies would impact your area?

Transcript

00:00Pharmacy owners in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have reportedly voted in favour of

00:05cutting opening hours and stopping home deliveries for the first time in a protest over government

00:11funding. The National Pharmacy Association, which ran a ballot, is calling on the government

00:16for an annual £1.7 billion funding increase in order to plug a quote financial hole. The

00:22NPA itself represents around half of the UK's community pharmacies and the organisation

00:28reported that 99% of those who responded to the vote said they were willing to limit

00:32their services unless funding was improved. The Department of Health in England said that

00:37it wants all pharmacies to work with it to achieve a service fit for the future. Interestingly,

00:42it's also been reported that pharmacies have said they feel trapped in an NHS system which

00:47is not giving them the money they need to supply medicines to their customers. The BBC

00:52reported that one pharmacy manager said that she had resulted in turning away frustrated

00:57patients because she couldn't justify the cost of buying in some drugs.

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