‘Community pharmacy is far too important to be allowed to wither away’

Thousands of pharmacies took part in the second day of the ‘Save Our Pharmacies’ protest organised by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) on Thursday.

Similar to the first day of protest in June, pharmacies carried out several symbolic actions, such as blacking out windows, to warn of the threat of future closures.

Meanwhile, NPA chief executive Paul Rees led a delegation of pharmacy leaders to deliver a 350,000-strong petition to No 10 Downing Street, calling for “immediate,
fair and sustained funding to safeguard NHS pharmacy services and ensure local pharmacies have a future.”

The delegation included NPA Chair Nick Kaye; Janet Morrison, CEO of Community Pharmacy England (CPE); Malcolm Harrison, CEO of Company Chemists’ Association (CCA),
and Gerard Greene, CEO of Community Pharmacy Northern Ireland (CPNI).

Steve Race MP, who is the new chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Pharmacy, and Sadik Al-Hassan, one of only two pharmacists in the House of Commons, also
joined them.