Pharmacists 'using personal savings to stay open' as a 4 in 10 can't pay bills

Cash-strapped pharmacistshave revealed they have resorted to using their own personal savings to stay afloat as community pharmacies battle to stay open.

Almost four in 10 community pharmacyowners reported being unable to pay wholesaler bills on time in the prior year, a survey found. And nearly half (45%) relied on personal savings to subsidise their pharmacy business in the same period.

The polling by the Community Pharmacy England (CPE) – whose members are businesses contracted by the NHS – included the views of over 800 owners, representing about 4,300 premises. It was conducted between January and March this year, prior to a new government funding settlement.

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CPE says England’s community pharmacy sector has endured a 30% real-terms funding cut in the past decade. Janet Morrison, chief executive of CPE, which represents over 10,000 community pharmacies, warned pharmacists "have been under unbearable pressures for a number of years now".

"Rising costs across the board, combined with funding that was decreasing in real terms, have left pharmacy owners making impossible choices – for larger companies this has meant closures of pharmacy branches, and for smaller independent pharmacies we have seen enormous personal tolls, and increasing numbers of business insolvencies," she said.

"The survey also reveals a deeply concerning trend of pharmacy owners fighting to keep their business afloat, and facing disastrous personal financial situations as a consequence. It is unthinkable that entrepreneurial, patient-facing health professionals who have spent their lives providing high-quality NHS services, are being left in this very desperate position. Pharmacy owners should not be subsidising NHS services from their own pockets. They should be focusing on supporting patients and planning for the future, not worrying about how to keep the lights on."

After the funding settlement, further polling was carried out in April with 370 owners representing 3,517 pharmacies. CPE said: “While the CPCF [Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework] settlement includes a welcome funding uplift expected to deliver £841 million to pharmacy owners in 2025/26, most pharmacy owners indicated that this investment does not address the full financial pressures they are facing.”

Two-thirds (66%) of pharmacy owners said that they were managing the threats – but do not know how much longer they could do so. Meanwhile, a fifth (21%) said they will not survive another year.

Anil Sharma, an independent community pharmacy owner who has outlets in Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and Suffolk, said: “Owning a community pharmacy business in 2025 is an intensely stressful experience. It is an endless juggle between trying to manage your patients, who are quite rightly upset and angry – for instance where we can’t get hold of medicines for them – and trying to get everything else done.

“My wife and I both work in our pharmacies and we often have to operate a night shift pattern so that we can get through everything – one of us is in the pharmacy late at night, while the other is home with the children, and the other then starts in the early hours of the morning. It’s exhausting: we can barely have any sort of a personal or family life.

"And that’s before you consider the financial worries – the wondering every month if we will be paid enough to cover our wholesaler bills; the concern that if another burned out member of staff leaves it will take us months and months to recruit again; and the lack of clarity about the future, as we only have a one-year funding settlement.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "Community pharmacists are at the heart of local healthcare and we're working to turn around a decade of underfunding and neglect that has left the sector on the brink of collapse. We want them to play a bigger role as we shift care out of hospitals and into the community through our Plan for Change.

"This year we increased funding to community pharmacies to almost £3.1 billion - representing the largest uplift in funding of any part of the NHS for 2025/2026 - providing patients with more services closer to home and freeing up GP appointments."