Community pharmacies in Northern Ireland will receive funding towards the cost of employer National Insurance Contribution (NIC) increases, Stormont announced last week.

But while the funding has been welcomed, the National Pharmacy Association's new chair has warned it 'still falls well short' of what is needed to support the sector.

Some £4m of funding has been earmarked to go towards the employment cost increase facing community pharmacies, the Northern Ireland Department of Health announced last week (13 May).

NI gov to help pharmacies with national insurance costs

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

But Northern Ireland health minister Mike Nesbitt said last week that he would rather the devolved government took 'a financial hit' than 'leave health care providers to deal with the UK Government’s hike in national insurance contributions by themselves'.

'That would have been deeply unfair and would have been detrimental to health and social care provision,' he added.

And he said this was in line with his three-year plan to stabilise health and social care services.

'It is crucially important to support providers who have been hit with additional costs for reasons entirely outside their control,' Mr Nesbitt said.

National insurance funding for pharmacies welcome but more investment needed

The news was welcomed by Gerard Greene, chief executive of Community Pharmacy Northern Ireland (CPNI).

He suggested that the total cost of national minimum wage rises, coupled with the NIC cost increases on the sector, would be around £12m in this financial year.

Based on this estimate, the £4m government funding would cover around a third of the increased employment costs facing pharmacies.

Mr Greene added that 'further stabilising investment' was needed to support the sector.

Olivier Picard, NPA chair, also welcomed the announcement as 'good news' for the sector.

But he said it 'still falls well short of the overall deficit in funding across the sector in Northern Ireland'.

Similar support offered to GPs in Northern Ireland was rejected by GPs as part of wider dissatisfaction with the funding offer, but the contract was then imposed by health ministers.

Dissatisfaction with pharmacy funding in NI is high

When the NPA balloted its members last year around the possibility of 'working-to-rule' style collective action, some 71% of NPA members in Northern Ireland turned out to vote, compared to 63.4% in England and 55.8% in Wales.

These 215 pharmacy owners represent at least two fifths of the nation's 303 pharmacies.

A major 'bone of contention' for pharmacies in Northern Ireland is the lack of electronic prescriptions and the need for pharmacies to collect them from GP surgeries manually.

After the NPA ballot, a delegation of Northern Ireland community pharmacists met with the UK Government's minister for Northern Ireland to discuss rising financial challenges facing the sector.