In 2015, care from community pharmacies didn’t cost public finances a single penny. A report commissioned by the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee has detailed that it achieved this by successfully delivering an impressive £3billion in savings.
This means that community pharmacy has far more value than the amount of money it costs to run, with the chief executive of the PSNC stating that expectations have been exceeded. Patients and society as a whole are benefiting hugely from the services community pharmacy offers in England, with each community pharmacy contributing, in monetary terms, a value of at least a quarter of a million pounds.
Many individuals across the country rely on pharmacies, and they have established themselves as important parts of the wider community that they serve. The report shows that they pay for themselves several times over.
Report Findings
Research was conducted into twelve different services offered by community pharmacies, including prescription management, minor ailments or injuries and emergency contraception. Data was collected from a number of different sources, which analysts then used to estimate the impact on the NHS, patients, and wider society should community pharmacy stop offering those services.
The results demonstrated that the NHS benefitted hugely from community pharmacy, gaining over £1billion in savings including the cost of treatment they ultimately didn’t need to provide. In addition to this, consultations into minor ailments services offered by pharmacies suggest that they could be saving the NHS a further £1billion.
The savings achieved by community pharmacies without having to cut back on the provision of essential services demonstrates the benefits that can be drawn from quality pharmaceutical consulting from companies such as http://www.gandlscientific.com/pharmaceutical-consulting.
Proposed Government Cuts Abandoned
The government had proposed cuts to funding to community pharmacy of 6%, which prompted the commissioning of this report by the PSNC. David Mowat, the minister for health, has subsequently announced that the planned £170m cuts have now been abandoned.
The value offered by community pharmacy is now much clearer to see, and it is essential that pharmacy services continue to be offered within the community and are sufficiently funded. The abandoned cuts are thought to have saved up to 3,000 community pharmacies from closure, which has been welcomed by many across the country.