Edward Morello

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Minehead (Rachel Gilmour) for securing this important debate. Community pharmacies are indispensable to West Dorset, serving as essential health hubs for our communities. However, they face mounting challenges, including escalating financial pressures and critical workforce shortages that threaten their ability to continue to provide those vital services. West Dorset, amazingly, is served by only 18 active pharmacies, for a population of more than 100,000. Data from the NHS Business Services Authority shows that the number of community pharmacies in England has declined by 6.7% since 2001. In the past year alone, a further 217 pharmacies have been lost, and startlingly it is those not offering in-person services—often called distance-selling pharmacies—that are the least likely to fail. That demonstrates that the new role that pharmacies are having to play in our healthcare system is actually hurting their viability due to the broken funding model. Workforce shortages exacerbate the strain. In NHS Dorset, the integrated care system that covers West Dorset, there are 47 vacancies, equating to a vacancy rate above the national average of 19%. The impact of these staffing challenges is clear: a 2024 survey by Community Pharmacy England found that three quarters of pharmacy team members reported shop staff shortages, and approximately 10% of pharmacy owners had no choice but to temporarily close their doors as a result of those shortages. For patients, that means longer waiting times, reduced services and less access to advice for urgent healthcare concerns. For staff, it translates to unsustainable workloads, difficulties in sourcing medicines and, most alarmingly, increases in patient abuse. Nearly all respondents—92%—reported struggling to cope with the pressure, highlighting the human toll of the pharmacy crisis. The recent rise in national insurance contributions places an additional burden on pharmacies as employers, particularly in rural areas, where revenue streams are less predictable. I have one pharmacy in my constituency that made a six-figure loss last year, even before the increase in national insurance contributions came in.