Pharmacists are going to extreme lengths to keep their stores open amid mounting financial pressures.
Some are resorting to using personal savings and even remortgaging their homes to keep their businesses afloat, with experts warning financial struggles have left many in the sector “teetering on the brink”.
Now, pharmacy leaders have urged the government to increase funding for services to secure the long-term sustainability of the industry.
It comes as a survey found almost four in 10 pharmacies are unable to pay bills for medication on time.
The poll by Community Pharmacy England (CPE), which included the views of 800 pharmacy owners, or around 4,300 pharmacies, found 45 per cent have relied on personal savings or remortgages to subsidise their pharmacy in the last year, while 37 per cent were unable to pay wholesaler bills on time.
Only 6 per cent said their pharmacy is profitable, while more than half (51 per cent) said they were losing money.
Janet Morrison, chief executive of CPE, which represents more than 10,000 community pharmacies, said 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.”
Analysis by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), which represents 6,000 independent community pharmacies in the UK, found 72 pharmacies have closed in England this year so far, the equivalent of two a week.
A separate poll of 600 NPA members found 63 per cent of pharmacies believe they will have to close for good over the next 12 months without additional funding.
NPA chief executive Henry Gregg said: “No NHS service should be being propped up by the personal savings or mortgages of the individuals running it.
“It’s clear that the scale of the challenge this government has inherited is enormous.
“Despite recent positive moves in the right direction, these surveys show many pharmacies are teetering on the brink and need support if they are to survive and achieve their full potential.
Elsewhere, the NPA survey found 94 per cent of its members think the latest funding settlement, which included record investment in the sector, did not bring financial stability.
Anil Sharma, an independent community pharmacy owner in the east of England, described owning a community pharmacy business in 2025 as “an intensely stressful experience”.
“It is an endless juggle between trying to manage your patients, who are quite rightly upset and angry – for instance when we can’t get hold of medicines for them – and trying to get everything else done,” he added.
“It’s exhausting, we can barely have any sort of a personal or family life.”
Mr Gregg said the government’s 10 year plan for the NHS “is a historic opportunity to finally shift care into communities and expand the role of community pharmacy” but warned this “cannot be done whilst pharmacies are unable to pay their bills and keep their doors open”.
“To fully realise this massive opportunity and revolutionise care for patients, we need additional funding to stabilise the pharmacy network and allow pharmacies to invest in new services,” he said.
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.”
