RPM And The "Threat" To UK Pharmacies, NHS

21 July 1996

As many as 3,055 pharmacies in the UK, or one in four of the total, could go out of business if Resale Price Maintenance on non-prescription drugs is abolished, according to new research published last week.

Closures of this magnitude would mean extra costs to the National Health Service of more than L4.7 billion ($7.3 billion) a year if only one-tenth of patients visited their general practitioner instead of self-medicating as a result of losing the free advice of their community pharmacist, it estimates. Moreover, extra travel costs of L4.4-L15.9 million ($6.8-$24.8 million) would be incurred for up to 8.2 million people who rely on their community pharmacy for getting their prescriptions dispensed, it says.

The study, which is entitled In Defence Of Community Pharmacy, was comissioned from Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group by the Community Pharmacy Action Group, which is fighting the campaign by the Asda supermarket chain to get RPM abolished (Marketletters passim). The report points out that pharmacies keep around 700 medicines in stock at any one time, or 10 times the number carried by the average supermarket, and that the pharmacist can obtain more than 2,000 medicines within 24 hours.

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