RURAL PHARMACY


> > border in two different countries. Our cross-border trade has been reduced greatly because there’s absolutely nothing to attract anyone to come to Newtownbutler, and I dread to think what’s going to happen when Brexit kicks in and we’re dealing with the as-yet- undetermined problems of cross-border trade that are going to arise.


‘The problems arising from lack of funding in infrastructure have been compounded by the problems that have been created in pharmacy. As every pharmacy contractor in the North knows, what we’re witnessing now is the build-up and fallout from seven or eight years of underfunding by the government. In addition to the fact that we STILL don’t have a pharmacy contract, enquiry after report after review has confirmed that community pharmacy is being underfunded by between £20-£30m each year. What more evidence does the Department need that community pharmacy could play a vital role in increased services in primary care? Or that more funding is needed? The latest issue is that, even though the independent Cost of Service Inquiry showed once again


that community pharmacy was being underfunded by up to £20m per year - and hence rural pharmacy is also being underfunded - the Department is choosing to ignore this vital piece of evidence.


‘Rural pharmacy has a separate section of the pharmacy budget. The Rural Pharmacy Access Funding was specially set up to allow for the lack of footfall experienced by pharmacies in locations such as this, but acknowledged that pharmacies were needed in such locations, and so the funding model is based on the number of scripts less than the NI average and on the distance from the nearest pharmacy. That means that if you have 1000 scripts a month, you’ll get more than someone who can fill 2000 scripts a month.


‘The problem with this funding model, however, is that it’s not permanent. It’s reviewed from year to year and so the future every year is uncertain. That means that you can’t plan staff and services etc because you can’t forecast your cashflow accurately.


‘In the last year alone, I had to let one part-time member of staff go purely


Newtownbutler’s decimated High Street


‘In the last year alone, I had to let one part-time member of staff go purely for financial reasons and I’m in the position at the minute where I can’t fulfil my pharmacy’s potential for carrying out services, or for doing outreach work, because I would have to pay locums to come in and stand in for me’


for financial reasons and I’m in the position at the minute where I can’t fulfil my pharmacy’s potential for carrying out services, or for doing outreach work, because I would have to pay locums to come in and stand in for me. Of course, that’s if I could GET a locum! Every contractor knows the problems that come with that minefield these days!


Yet another once-thriving business is now closed. 6 - PHARMACY IN FOCUS


‘Then there’s the uncertainty over the fallout from Brexit. We simply don’t know the effect that it’s going to have on NI and ROI business in general, let alone pharmacy in particular. The fact that my pharmacy is practically on the border simply doubles the uncertainty over tariffs, supply, workforce, taxes…you name it. I just don’t know what the future holds and I know that my colleagues


in similar locations are all desperately worried – and angry – about the situation in which we have been placed!


‘We desperately need some sort of certainty. We have received support from MLAs, local MPs and councillors, who have been both shocked and concerned at the lack of backing we have received from the Department and who are trying to help us to progress the community pharmacy agenda. We can only hope that their support will bring us dividends at some point. Howard Thornton, Chairman of Fermanagh & Omagh District Council has been particularly supportive, but I just don’t know how much anybody can do in the face of such adversity.’


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