A west Belfast pharmacist has said he is already forced to close on Saturdays as the NHS pays under market value for medication.
Paul McDonagh owns McDonagh Pharmacy on the Falls Road, a business first opened by his father James in 1956.
He told the Irish News he wouldn’t be encouraging a third generation into the profession, with pharmacists facing “appalling” financial pressures.
This includes being forced to cash in his own pension, skipping a monthly salary on occasion and being unable to employ enough staff.
It follows an unprecedented ballot from the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) this week, with independent community pharmacies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland voting for collective action for the first time in their history with members “forced into an untenable position by a decade of underfunding.”
With a turnout of 64% of 3,339 independent community pharmacies, 97.8% said they would serve notice on opening hours above the minimum 40 hours per week.
“I’ve been in pharmacy over 30 years now and we’re basically being paid the same fees as when I started,” Mr McDonagh told the Irish News.
“It hasn’t been sustainable for a long time but things have come to a head. I think around 10 pharmacies in Northern Ireland have closed in the last couple of years.
“Any normal business will increase their prices if the costs go up. We effectively have one customer, the Department of Health, and they pay us what they want.
“They know exactly what we’re paying out, but they’re taking advantage of our good nature knowing we’ll carrying on dispensing the drugs.”
Being paid a dispensing fee of £1 per item when he started as a pharmacist in 1995, the fee did rise to £1.16 this April.
But Mr McDonagh said this is far short of what is required.
“Looking back to 1995, we are paying four times the wages per person now as opposed to then, pharmacy locums twice what it is then,” he said.
“Ultimately nothing has increased as low as 16% except our fees.”
He said another issue was that when a pharmacy closes, there is a reluctance for others to take on customers which will essentially lose them money.
“To be honest with you, I’ve cashed in pensions and life policies. There’s some months I haven’t taken a salary,” he said.
“I’m sure there’s others who are remortgaging their houses, because at the end of the day this is all we have.
“We don’t work for a department where we get a big pension at the end of it.
“You’re pacing the walls at night and there’s a lot of people that are a lot worse than me. It’s pretty grim out there.”
JUST IN: Results of our national ballot of membership. The ballot result is over whelming, contractors are clearly supportive of taking action. pic.twitter.com/e2J0QeUdF7
— National Pharmacy Association (@NPA1921) November 14, 2024
In one example, Mr McDonagh said he paid £56 last year for a box of the anticoagulant drug Apixiban, but was paid just £14 from the health service.
“So if someone needs a three month supply, you’re losing around £90. What business model does that work in?
“I have visions at night where I’m pitching this on Dragon’s Den and I get thrown out.
“I’ve never worked as hard in my life. I used to employ a locum for the day to give me time to catch up on my paper work.
“Now I do it all at home, sometimes I’m up to 2am.
“It’s not a profession I’d recommend for anyone. My own father was a pharmacist, but the way we’re treated now is appalling.”
Gerard Greene, Chief Executive of Community Pharmacy NI, said the recent ballot showed an industry at a crossroads.
“This will be just the tip of the iceberg. We’re already seeing pharmacies closing altogether because of the mounting costs which make it unviable to remain in business,” he said.
With the health minister recently promoting the use of community pharmacists to ease winter pressures, Mr Greene said the ballot actually showed that pharmacies were looking “for all possible ways to withdraw or curtail goodwill services, just to maintain core services and remain open.”
