The Government has been called upon to scrap controversial plans to cut NHS support for pharmacies in a bid it believes will save £22billion.
A nationwide petition brought to public attention by the National Pharmacy Association managed to attract almost 2m signatures in September – and this month MPs are calling upon the Government to reconsider its plans.
In a letter to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Bradford East MP Imran Hussain stressed that a large proportion of pharmacists were “overwhelmingly in favour of abandoning” the proposals.
He said that the proposals would “harm the health of communities, fail to save money in the long term,” and increase pressure on GPs – whom an increasing number of Britons would inevitably turn to “as a first resort”.
The National Pharmacy Association has said that major UK cities, and especially London, will be hit hard if the Government sticks to its proposals.
“Nationally, the Government has said we could lose up to a quarter of our pharmacies — 2,000 across England. In London, a lot of pharmacies are at risk in under-doctored areas,” said Stephen Fishwick, National Pharmacy Association spokesperson.
“We are going to get the situation where people in some of the most deprived areas in the country are going to have neither a doctor nor a local pharmacy,” he added.
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