Recommendation 1

There is clearly something wrong if the funding that pharmacies receive from the NHS does not cover medicine costs, given their core function of dispensing medicines. The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework is evidently not fit for purpose. It is overly complex and has contributed to the financial pressures that pharmacies are facing. Given the scale and timetable of the Government’s stated ambitions for the changing role of community pharmacy, the ways in which pharmacies are funded requires reform urgently to ensure they have the funding to deliver what will be expected of them.