I am disappointed to hear that the government will be imposing cuts on community pharmacies, despite earlier indicating they have scrapped these proposals. In this EDP article, you can read some of what I have to say about these worrying new developments. My full quote is as below.

The return of these cuts shows just what a duplicitous, blinkered and out of touch government we’ve got.

Here in Norwich, 1000s of people supported my campaign to stop the budget for community pharmacy being slashed.

I was told time and time again what a senseless false economy this would be – giving thousands of pharmacy users in Norwich no alternative but to go to already struggling GPs, A+E departments, Out of Hours services or Walk-In Centres.

People said that the likely closure of one in four pharmacies would rip the heart out of local shopping communities – leaving behind empty parades with only the bookies and legal loan sharks left standing.

Two months ago, the government seemingly saw sense and said they’d halt the cuts. But now they’ve about-turned.

There is no logical health rationale whatsoever for this attack on our local pharmacies. It only makes sense if you see them in the context of the Tories’ ceaseless desire to reward their backers in the corporations and finance at the expense of all of us and the vital public services we all rely on.

You can sign my petition to ‘Save our Community Pharmacies’ HERE.