Scotland pharmacies to receive 4% global sum uplift

Scotland’s community pharmacy sector is to receive a 4% uplift to support additional costs including National Insurance hikes, it has been revealed.

Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS) said it been informed by the Scottish Government that an uplift of ‘around £9.31m’ is to be applied to the global sum funding mechanism for community pharmacies for 2025/26.

It said the money would be ‘directly used’ to support additional costs faced by the sector, including the impact of National Insurance changes.

But CPS chief executive Matt Barclay said the 4% uplift was ‘not enough to cover the rising operating costs being faced by the pharmacy network’.

He said the Scottish Government’s had recently pointed to an ‘enhanced role for primary care and community pharmacy as part of wider health service restructuring and refocus’.

‘We support this direction of travel, particularly in relation to our place in the detection and prevention of ill health,’ said Mr Barclay.

‘However, community pharmacies need to be adequately resourced to support our shared ambitions and unfortunately this settlement currently falls short of our requirements.’

Today’s announcement comes in addition to the recently confirmed increase to the medicines reimbursement offer for pharmacies in Scotland – which rose by £10m to £120m.

UK chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a 1.2 percentage point increase in employer National Insurance Contributions to 15%, as part of the autumn budget in October 2024.

Alongside Scotland, pharmacies in Northern Ireland are also being given funding towards the cost of National Insurance increases – though concerns have also been raised there that the investment does not go far enough.

Despite hopes from the sector in England, the recently agreed £3bn contract was not uplifted against any specific costs, such as the National Insurance rise.

This is a breaking news story, more to follow