Reena Barai has spent her life at the SG Barai Pharmacy in Sutton, south London, first living above the shop her father took over in 1979 before becoming the owner herself 21 years ago. But her happy memories threaten to be overwhelmed as she faces the “heartbreaking” decision to close the doors for good due to the financial crisis engulfing pharmacies . Hundreds have already shut their doors and those still operating fear a £1.
7bn black hole they say is set to widen due to increasing costs and the lack of a long-term funding settlement with the Government. “All my customers have known me since I was a baby but the future doesn’t seem viable for us anymore” Reena, 47, told i . “They come in and ask: ‘you’re not going to close, are you?’ But we might do.
We may look like a really busy pharmacy but I’m a busy fool, because I’m busy doing stuff we’re not getting paid for. “I’m giving away free advice, I’m delivering medicines for free, I’m doing lots of things because we were able to have that goodwill with patients previously, where the income matched our activities. “However, we’ve had a 40 per cent funding cut in real terms over the last 10 years with no inflationary increase in our contract.
We’re doing more and more work for less and less money. We’ve had Covid and Brexit and the impact that has had on medicine supply, leaving us in this awful situation. That’s the position the majority of us are in.
” October’s Budget was anoth.
