Published: 28/11/24

We have taken a stand along with our primary care colleagues in Scotland to address the looming financial burden that is the hike in employers' National Insurance (NI) contributions announced by the UK Government last month.

In an open letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government, Shona Robison, Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS), along with the British Medical Association Scotland, British Dental Association, and Optometry Scotland has delivered a clear message on behalf of its members: failure to protect us from the National Insurance (NI) hike will have real consequences for the communities we serve.  

As independent contractors, our members deliver essential healthcare services to communities across Scotland on behalf of the NHS. Their main customer is the NHS; therefore, these contractors have no scope to transfer the increase in overhead costs on to the consumer like a restaurant or supermarket would. This leaves our members in a vulnerable situation, and they deserve the same exemptions from the hike that have been offered to secondary care.  

When the UK Government budget was announced at the end of October, CPS recognised that the community pharmacy network would face financial challenges due to increased overhead costs. We therefore sought the opportunity to collaborate with our colleagues in general practice, dentistry, and optometry to create a powerful voice for our joint membership to ensure the consequences of not providing exemptions to these NI increases would be heard loud and clear. This affects community, this affects every primary care service provider. By outlining these consequences, we hope to influence decision-making in Scotland for the 2024/25 budget (due to be announced in early December) and therefore prevent any changes to current primary care services. The budget may not make things plainly obvious so it will be in our own negotiations we are likely to iron out the detail. Fortunately, our direct civil servant colleagues understand the pressures. Whether they’ll be given the tools to address it is the important question. 

Without urgent action from the Scottish Government to mitigate these financial pressures, the consequences for service continuity, contract viability, and patient access to care could be significant.  

We understand that community pharmacy contractors may have to look at their current service offerings and make difficult decisions about which services can continue, with some possibly being withdrawn or significantly reduced to protect the core elements of their businesses. 

CPS has continued to campaign for this exemption since the letter was sent to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government. Media engagement has seen the issue being broadcast at a national level, spreading the message that urgent action is needed. We will continue to advocate for financial fairness on this subject across all NHS service providers for our members. 

Minister Neil Grey MSP stated the Scottish Government had estimated the net cost of the increase to all independent contractors providing NHS services at around £40 million. One way or another, this funding gap must be addressed.