Chancellor sets out Autumn Budget
The Chancellor announced her Autumn Budget today (30th October), setting out the Government’s overarching spending plans for the next 18 months.
The Budget promised an additional £22.6 billion for day-to-day healthcare spending, but the Chancellor made no specific pledges about supporting primary care or the community pharmacy sector.
The Chancellor announced a number of changes which will impact on businesses. Assuming these are applied to pharmacy businesses, they will impose further cost increases. The changes included:
- Increasing the National Living Wage by 6.7%
- Increasing employers’ contributions to national insurance, and lowering the point at which they start to be paid
Healthcare commitments noted today included earmarking an investment of £1.5 billion capital funding for surgical hubs, diagnostic scanners and hospital beds. Additionally, the Treasury’s plans emphasised the importance of reform, pointing to the Government’s ambition to publish a 10 Year Health Plan for the NHS in Spring 2025.
Community Pharmacy England has been inputting into the new Government’s Spending Review and planning since the General Election: we have underlined to Ministers once again when we met today how critical it is that Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) negotiations now recommence.
Janet Morrison, Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy England, said:
“Today’s Budget looks to impose yet more cost increases on community pharmacy businesses – without providing any clarity on whether relief is on the way for the sector. As we have been saying for many months, community pharmacies need an urgent injection of funding to put a stop to the ongoing financial crisis in the sector.
I have underlined to Ministers once again today that without funding relief, Government can expect to see more pharmacies closing, meaning more patients going without advice and medicines, and turning to other parts of the health service. Neither patients nor the NHS can afford for this to happen, and the consequences of more pharmacy businesses collapsing for all those who work in, and rely on, them would be disastrous.
On the other hand, investment in community pharmacies would not only support the health service and the patients who rely on it, but it would deliver huge value for money and help the Government to deliver on its wider mission of economic growth.
We are ready to restart CPCF negotiations immediately – these discussions will be absolutely critical for the survival of community pharmacy, and indeed for the millions of people who rely on pharmacies every day.”
Government engagement
In the Government’s first 100 days, Community Pharmacy England has been re-building a network of advocates across Parliament, conducting economic projects and public polling to reinforce our arguments and business cases, and working with national media to get coverage of the pressures that pharmacies as well as the value they bring (e.g. our recent Daily Mail and iNews coverage).
We submitted clear and strong evidence about the intolerable pressures on pharmacy, and the value of investing in this sector, in our submissions to both the Darzi Review and the Government Spending Review which informed this Budget. Work is ongoing to continue to influence Government policy and fiscal decisions, particularly the NHS 10-Year Plan and future Spending Reviews.
