Pharmacy news – High rents still a major problem for pharmacies, warns NPA

Pharmacy news - High rents still a major problem for pharmacies, warns NPA

The National Pharmacy Association has warned community pharmacies based in health centres are still struggling to make ends meet. This is because of high rents seven months after the government promised to resolve the issue.  They urged landlords to allow pharmacists to renegotiate rates part-way through a contract.

The NPA’s director of corporate affairs Gareth Jones said the formula used by landlords, based on “historical assumptions about how many prescriptions the co-located GP will generate for the pharmacy,” was outdated and “no longer fit for purpose.”

Calling on landlords to consider “that spending power is shrinking” when determining rents, he said: “All health centre landlords should recognise that rents are increasingly unaffordable. It is in the long-term interest of both the landlords and tenants that a realistic solution is found as a matter of urgency.”

In July last year, the then health minister Maria Caulfield said the Department of Health and Social Care was working with the NHS to ensure rents were applied to community pharmacies in a “fair and transparent” way and insisted the DHSC had held discussions with NHS Property Services (NHSPS), the landlords for the majority of premises in health centres, about the issue.

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Pharmacy news - High rents still a major problem for pharmacies