Labour has today announced that they are calling a vote next Wednesday on the Government’s cuts to community pharmacies, that could cause as many as 3,000 pharmacies across the country to close.

The Government has pushed ahead with the huge cuts despite dire warnings from the pharmacy sector, communities that rely on pharmacies and even their own Tory MPs about the cost of these cuts.

Julie Cooper, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Community Health, who ran a community pharmacy for twenty years said:

“The Government’s decision to push ahead with the huge funding cut for community pharmacies shows no understanding of the contribution that community pharmacies make to patients, communities and to the NHS as a whole.

“The NHS is already in the throes of a staffing and funding crisis and forcing community pharmacies to cut back services and close down is short sighted in the extreme, and could have catastrophic effects in the long term.

“That’s why Labour is announcing today that we are calling a vote in Parliament next week on the cuts to community pharmacies and urging Tory MPs to vote with us to save their local pharmacies”