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The Government has given contractors in England an unwelcome early Christmas present, slashing funding by £170m in a move described by PSNC as "unprecedented".

The shock news was delivered to PSNC in an open letter, revealed at a meeting hosted by pharmacy minister Alistair Burt yesterday (December 17). The Government revealed that funding for community pharmacy in 2016/17 will be cut from £2.8bn to £2.63bn, a reduction of more than 6 per cent in cash terms.

The letter was signed by the director general, innovation, growth and technology, Department of Health, and the chief pharmaceutical officer.

In a furious response, PSNC chief executive Sue Sharpe said at a time when primary care and urgent care services are struggling to manage demand, this was a "profoundly damaging move".

"It will deliver a destructive blow to the support community pharmacies can offer to patients and the public," she said. "Community pharmacies provide vital healthcare and advice which reduces the burden on GPs and urgent care services and helps the NHS to cope with winter pressures."

Almost inevitably the impact of the cuts will force pharmacies to reduce staffing levels and direct more people to GP or urgent care, Ms Sharpe warned.

Heartless, visionless

NPA chairman, Ian Strachan, described the move as "heartless as well as visionless".

There is a fundamental contradiction in the position of NHS England, he said. "It calls for community pharmacy to step forward to meet spiralling health challenges, whilst announcing cuts that will severely hamper our ability to deliver."

This "misinformed" set of proposals rest upon a questionable evidence base, unbalanced opinion, and ignore the truly transformational opportunities in community pharmacy, Mr Strachan continued. Most worrying of all, they imply that pharmacy is just a distribution mechanism for product, rather than a valuable health and social care asset at the heart of communities.

"Taken together, the statement looks like an assault on the very part of the health system that holds the key to solving many of its problems. Patients would be the biggest losers, if the combination of measures proposed in this statement come to pass."

He added: €The fact that this news was announced publicly just before Christmas, at a particularly busy time for pharmacies, means it is heartless as well as visionless. It shows a lack of concern for a profession that gives its all throughout the year. Many people working in the pharmacy sector will be worried during this festive period about what the future holds€.