Need something urgently for a headache or diarrhea? Good luck finding a pharmacy | Nell Frizzell

By Liam On Aug 29, 2024

IUntil I woke up at 2am in the middle of an orchard with a child so covered in bites it felt like I was sharing a tent with a pack of feral cats, I hadn’t realised how severe the pharmacy shortage was in the UK.

For years, the previous government advised people struggling to get a GP appointment to simply go to their local chemist. After all, pharmacists can often prescribe things faster than a doctor, have a better idea of what they have in stock, and you can pick up a box of condoms and some of those petrol-tasting throat lozenges at the same time. If your case isn’t urgent, we were told, don’t bother the poor doctors with your flaky feet or sore throat, just go the short distance down the high street and ask for your medical advice from someone behind a counter of hair ties and lip balms. The scheme even had a cute name: Pharmacy First.

In addition, almost 1,000 pharmacies have closed since 2017, mainly in poor and rural areas. In May, the National Pharmacy Association warned that almost 50% more pharmacies had closed in England in the first four months of 2024 than in the same period in 2023, partly due to a real financing reduction of no less than 40%.

So when I typed “pharmacy” into Google Maps on Saturday night, the nearest result was 10 miles away and of course it was closed at the weekend. Even with the privilege of living in the heart of Oxford, last year when I had pneumonia I had to go to three pharmacies in one week to get a few days’ worth of antibiotics to try and cover my entire course.

I imagine thousands of us have been in desperate need of antihistamines, sunscreen, Dioralyte, folic acid, plasters, Deep Heat and Sudocrem this summer (hopefully not all at once, unless you’re one of those people who really lets loose at festivals), only to find that our local chemist has either closed or drastically reduced its opening hours. Why? It’s a tale as old as time, a song as old as rhyme: rising costs and devastating austerity.