UK Pharmacies Under Pressure: “More Work, Less Money”:
“Modern medicine has become distorted and is now, for reasons largely to do with profit and power, heavily dependent on prescription drugs”. According to the Amazon website, this is the main theme
of a paperback publication by two British authors, the controversial nutritionist Patrick Holford and the editor of Health Insight UK, Jerome Burne, who contend that far more attention should be given to changing 21st century diets and lifestyle and that the billion dollar global pharmaceutical industry urgently needs to be brought under control.
Holford in particular has alleged that Britain’s healthcare system problems are partly due to some GP (General Practitioner) salaries being derived from the commissions he
claims they make on the prescriptions they issue to their patients. He also concurs with the view expressed in the book by the south London doctor, James Le Fanu, titled “Too Many Pills”, that having a plethora of tablets “cluttering our bathroom cabinets” is making us feel worse, not better.
Data published by findapharmacy.uk on 16th June indicates that outlets in England dispense approximately 92.8 million items per month , in Scotland 10.6 million, in Wales 5.4 million and in Northern Ireland 4.0 million. There are currently 15,367 “active UK pharmacy businesses” registered at Companies House in London, among them major retailers such as Boots, those
available inside supermarkets such as Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, along with a wide range of independents. In England, each prescription item costs £9.90, except for the under 16’s, those under 18 in full-time education and anyone over the age of 60. As gov.uk points out, this means that if your GP prescribes three different medications, you pay a total of £29.70. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, however, prescriptions are entirely free. The cost of this, as the “Telegraph’s” money correspondent, Madeleine Ross has noted, is paid for by taxpayers in 
England.
In a front-page article on 6th September, the Sunday Times Health Editor, Shaun Lintern, highlighted the “overprescribing epidemic” resulting in thousands of elderly patients being admitted to hospitals after suffering reactions to “cocktails of medicines”. Almost eight million people in the UK, he observed, are at risk of side-effects from taking five or more drugs a day and indeed for 2.2 million it’s ten every day. An editorial in the same newspaper expressed alarm that this is causing more harm than good but acknowledged that doctors are “massively-overstretched” and are struggling to cope with the demands of the country’s ageing population.
Nonetheless, the International Centre for Global Health Information (ICGI),while accepting that in some countries the rules regarding gifts and hospitality
from pharmaceutical
companies to doctors can be fairly relaxed, is adamant that (contrary to Holford’s assertions), in the UK there are stringent regulations in place to prevent “improper influence”. Hence, any GP found to be receiving payments or inducements for prescribing drugs in Britain faces serious consequences, including disciplinary action from the General Medical 
Council (GMC) and suspension or even
removal from the medical register. Pharmaceutical representatives are allowed to visit doctors, but when doing so must provide accurate information about their products and should not employ aggressive sales tactics. Much of the pressure on GPs, it seems, comes from their patients, not the companies. As Andrew Cole. a contributor to the British Medical Journal, has commented, 55% of them prescribe antibiotics on demand even if they’re not sure they are needed and 44% do so only to get the patient to leave the surgery. Apparently one in ten people expect to be prescribed 
antibiotics whenever they have an appointment and another 13% most of the time.
A Press Association report in the Guardian on 10th September confirmed that from this autumn, pharmacists will be able to treat people with migraines, ear infections and other conditions as part of the expansion of the “pharmacy first” arrangement. The problem with their taking over more of the GPs’ responsibilities, the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) emphasized on 26 February, is that their government funding has declined by 40% over the past decade even though there has been a 16% rise in the number of
NHS prescriptions to be dispensed, hence a heavier workload. They have to pay upfront to order medicines and are later reimbursed by the NHS, but not always for what they cost them, which leaves them operating at a loss.
A National Pharmacy Association (NPA) analysis in March revealed that, for economic reasons, 20% of their members have cut their weekend opening hours since 2022, obliging patients to drive around looking for one that is open or for those without a vehicle to take public transport, which can prove a problem in rural areas. Even if they find one, there’s no guarantee that their drugs will be available. Oliver Picard, NPA Chairman, warned on 18th June that the US-Iran
conflict has exacerbated supply issues and that there’s a shortage of painkilllers and medication for issues such a blood pressure: The market is “extremely volatile and exposed to events beyond its control”.