The Pharmacist is today launching a survey asking contractors and pharmacy teams to share your story and tell us about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on your pharmacy.

It has now been almost a year since the start of the first national lockdown in the UK – a year that has seen community pharmacy keep its doors open to the public as other services moved to closed-door working, manage significant increases in dispensing, deliveries and phones ringing off the hook, administer record numbers of flu vaccinations, and more recently push for its place in the Covid vaccine rollout – to name just a few of the challenges faced.

But the pressures of the pandemic do not exist in isolation and instead come against the backdrop of years of funding cuts to the sector. In December, an inquiry by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Pharmacy found that almost half (47%) of 1,604 pharmacy owners might have to close in the coming year. Last month, pharmacy negotiators warned that the Government and NHS England were ‘failing in their duty’ to protect the sector financially and called for ministers to understand that closures are ‘a real and growing concern’.

The Pharmacist is keen to hear about your experiences and the pressures Covid has placed on your pharmacy. The survey asks questions about pharmacy finances, services and staff and can be completed anonymously – it should take around 10 minutes to complete.

If you choose to leave your contact details at the end of the survey, you will also be entered into our prize draw for £100 of John Lewis vouchers.

The findings from the survey will be reported on the Pharmacist. Take the survey here.