More than 100 local pharmacists from across Northern Ireland met in Belfast recently to express their real frustration and anger about the lack of progress by the Department of Health in addressing the funding crisis in community pharmacy.
Many local pharmacists, who attended the meeting, claimed that the paralysis in decision making by the Department of Health and the Health and Social Care Board will result in pharmacies closing and will reduce people’s access to a vital health service, impacting the most vulnerable in society. A direct appeal was made to Richard Pengelly, Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health, to alleviate the problems and follow through with the commitment to release funding to arrest the decline within community pharmacy.
