High street pharmacies are on the “verge” of collapse, a damning report into the “critical” pressures facing teams ruled today.
Research in England into staffing and morale in the sector has found that 9 in 10 team members struggle to cope with the demands of the workload.
Seven in 10 pharmacy owners also regularly report staff shortages, with a tenth forced to close temporarily, according to the survey by industry body Community Pharmacy England (CPE).
One owner told MailOnline he was so overwhelmed he hadn’t been able to take a day off for more than three years.
Even then, the last break he had was a single day for his 23-year-old son’s funeral.
Others have been assaulted, with objects thrown at them or even punched amid rising levels of patient aggression, with incidents reported almost every week.
One owner, Anil Sharma (pictured), told MailOnline he was assaulted, punched and objects thrown at him amid increasing levels of aggression from patients, with incidents being recorded almost every week.
Research in England into staffing and morale in the sector has found that nine out of ten team members struggle to cope with the demands of the workload.
The scathing report comes after it was revealed that the number of pharmacies in England is now at the lowest level in almost 20 years, with an average of seven of these vital services closing each week.
There are fears that workplace pressures and aggression from frustrated patients could add to this trend, causing a domino effect as remaining pharmacies have to pick up the slack.
Industry leaders called the findings “deeply worrying” and called on the Government to urgently address the sector’s workforce shortages and “critical funding constraints”.
The Pharmaceutical Pressures in England Survey surveyed more than 900 owners, representing more than 6,100 individual establishments in England, as well as 2,000 employees.
More than three-quarters admitted that the pressures of their work had affected their mental health.
More than eight in 10 (86 per cent) said staff shortages had resulted in longer waiting times for patients to receive medicine or advice.
Nearly two-thirds (62 percent) also reported that a workforce shortage had forced them to reduce the services they offer.
‘The pressure on community pharmacy staff and morale has reached an all-time low. This is pushing companies to the limit,” the report concludes.
An anonymous owner, who has run his pharmacy in Rotherham for seven years, told MailOnline he had only taken one day off this year – his mother’s funeral earlier this month.
Tragically, the 59-year-old’s last day off was in 2021, the day of his 23-year-old son’s funeral.
On both occasions, he said, he couldn’t even afford to take bereavement leave, as he couldn’t afford the high fees demanded by substitutes.
He told MailOnline: ‘I just desperately want something to change. I haven’t even had time to cry for my son. I’m just on a constant treadmill.
‘I’d love to get a good night’s sleep, I really would.
He added: ‘I’ve had to pass our costs onto different credit cards to stay afloat. I have a debt of £25,000.
‘Even though things are as bad as they are now, there seems to be no sign of them getting better.
Anil Sharma (pictured), who runs eight pharmacies in Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Suffolk, said his teams experience this abuse almost every week, but it is rarely reported to the police.
“I’ve thought about closing, but I want to be in a position where my loans are paid off before I do.”
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) is currently polling pharmacy owners on possible “work to rule” action amid a funding dispute with the Government.
Campaigners say financial problems began with the new national contract in 2015, which effectively significantly reduced NHS income from pharmacies and has not adjusted for inflation or rising staff and fuel costs.
The NPA is not a union, so any outcome of the vote would be advisory.
But if backed, the NPA says the action, which will begin before Christmas, could see pharmacies open with shorter hours or potentially provide fewer services such as emergency contraception or withdraw free drug deliveries.
However, the anonymous owner told MailOnline he could not afford to take part in any action.
“I can’t cope anymore, my income can’t decrease any more,” he said.
‘Pharmacies are very low in the pecking order. We are not even considered important.
Meanwhile, another pharmacy owner told how he was assaulted, beaten and even had bottles of medicine thrown at him amid rising levels of aggression from patients.
Anil Sharma, who runs eight pharmacies in Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Suffolk, said his teams suffer abuse almost every week.
He told MailOnline: ‘We’ve had two incidents in the last fortnight alone.
‘Mostly they are people upset because their medication is not ready.
‘Medicines are not ready for many reasons: you can’t get a medicine or you are a week late in dispensing prescriptions because many of your staff are gone.
But people don’t care if they are sick. They want their medication. We have stopped reporting incidents to the police.
He explained that this is due to both the paperwork involved and the lack of results.
“We don’t have time and we don’t take patients to court because they are patients, they are sick.”
Record levels of staff shortages, which have prevented him from recruiting trained staff for more than 18 months, have also meant that Sharma and his wife have to work “100 hours a week each, sometimes overnight” to ensure that the business continues to operate.
He said: ‘The pharmaceutical workforce has been decimated to an unprecedented level.
NHS Business Services Authority data published in October shows there were just 11,414 community pharmacies remaining in England in the 2022/23 financial year.
‘I have been in pharmacy for 25 years and I have never known pressure like this. It’s a perfect storm. It is a national scandal.
‘There were weeks where we worked all night trying to keep up with dispensing, so people were waiting too long.
‘Ultimately, it’s our business. We put our life savings into these businesses and if we can’t keep them afloat and all the patients leave us, then we won’t have any business left.
“It’s had a huge impact on my life.”
Responding to the survey results, Janet Morrison, chief executive of CPE, said: “We are deeply concerned about the wellbeing of staff and the negative impact that the current pressures are having on both the mental health of the pharmacy workforce community as well as in patient care.
‘Community pharmacy teams are working around the clock to protect their patients and local communities, but a crumbling workforce is not supporting the delivery of quality patient care.
‘If pharmacy staff are overworked, understaffed, harassed and facing significant stress, this negatively impacts their ability to meet patient needs.
“If we are to make the most of the clinical skills of community pharmacists and their teams, we must address these workforce shortages, as well as critical funding constraints and capacity issues in the sector.”
Boots has closed branches en masse in recent months, while LloydsPharmacy has closed its doors entirely. Pictured: A former LloydsPharmacy store in Bracknell, Berkshire.
Paul Rees, chief executive of the NPA, also told this website: ‘This report rightly highlights the significant workload and workforce challenges facing community pharmacy due to the impact of a decade of underfunding.
‘Pharmacies are having to manage significantly increased workloads due to increased demand, while also facing funding cuts and recruitment difficulties.
‘This is pushing many to the brink, with a record number of pharmacies closing last year alone and others taking drastic measures to stay open.
“To address this, the Government must provide community pharmacies with a new funding agreement that stops closures and allows pharmacies to cope with increased demand.”
In August, the NPA also warned that the number of pharmacies in England was now at the lowest level in almost 20 years, with an average of seven closing each week.
More than 1,500 have closed their doors since 2015, leaving only 10,054 open.
At this rate, numbers could fall below 10,000 for the first time since 2005, when there were 9,872, he said.
Boots has closed branches en masse in recent months, while LloydsPharmacy has closed its doors entirely.