MORE pharmacies will be forced to close unless the Tory government provides urgently needed funding for the austerity-hit sector, industry leaders have warned.

Worsening staffing shortfalls have led to many dispensers shutting their doors for good since 2015 following a big funding cut, Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies chief Leyla Hannbeck said on Monday.

The warning came before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced plans today to allow patients to obtain prescription medicines and oral contraception directly from pharmacies under a blueprint to ease the pressure on GP appointments.

Treatments for earache, sore throat, urinary tract infections and other common conditions will be available without seeing a doctor under the £645 million NHS England initiative, which the PM claimed would help end the “all-too stressful wait” to book a slot in overrun GP surgeries. 

But critics warned the diminishing pharmacy sector is unlikely to be able to cope with significantly increased demand. 

Ms Hannbeck told the BBC: “We are expecting that this year many more pharmacies will close unless the government comes out and injects them with some liquidity and funding to keep the sector going.”

She noted a whopping £1.1 billion funding shortfall every year which has resulted in many centres operating at a loss and struggling to pay medicine wholesalers’ bills.

“For pharmacists to keep their head above water, something needs to be done urgently,” the industry boss said. 

Thorrun Govind, chairwoman of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in England, told BBC Breakfast that the sector could and would like to do “so much more,” but staffing issues and soaring energy and drug costs are holding it back.

The King’s Fund health think tank warned some pharmacies will not be able to offer the services because they may not have access to diagnostic tools or sufficient staff and consultation rooms.

Senior fellow Beccy Baird said: “It will be really frustrating for patients to be bumped from pillar to post, only to end up back at the GP.

“It is essential that, over the long term, primary care is as much of a priority as reducing the hospital backlog.”

Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: “Expecting the Conservatives to fix this is like expecting an arsonist to put out the fire they started.

“Rishi Sunak is completely out of touch with the problems facing patients and the NHS.”