Many pharmacists to vote on cuts to opening hours

The Pharmacy First service, launched in January in England, extended the range of services chemists can provide, including treatment of sinusitis, earache and shingles.

Members were not being asked to pull out of the scheme, the NPA said, but a reduction in opening hours to 40 per week would affect it.

Another pharmacy group takes a different view on the current situation.

Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association said: “Our members are deeply embedded in their local communities and for them the idea of prematurely punishing patients by any type of strike action is unconscionable.”

Ms Hannbeck said the focus should be on engaging with the new ministers “in as constructive a way as possible”.

Health is a devolved issue and pharmacists in Wales and Northern Ireland are being surveyed separately, because of similar concerns about funding.

But there is no discussion about protest action in Scotland, where the NPA says financial support is more adequate.

A Department of Health official covering England said: “Pharmacies are key to making healthcare fit for the future as we shift the focus of the NHS out of hospitals and into the community.

“We will make better use of pharmacists’ skills, including accelerating the rollout of independent prescribing to improve access to care.”