Brighton no longer has any late-night pharmacies, according to an official report, because of contract changes made by the NHS.
The latest closing time across Brighton and Hove is 9pm on Thursdays and Fridays and 8pm on Monday to Wednesday and Saturdays.
The report also said that a survey of GPs (general practitioners) found that GP surgeries had a lack of knowledge of services delivered by pharmacies including essential, advanced and public health services.
It added that eight out of 11 family doctors responding to the GP survey were very satisfied or fairly satisfied with the pharmacy that they used most – but two were very dissatisfied.
And report said that the overall number of pharmacies continued to shrink locally and three of the most deprived areas of Brighton did not have a single pharmacy – East Moulsecoomb, Craven Vale and the Bristol Estate.
One councillor said that she was “amazed” that there seemed to be so little communication between pharmacies and doctors.
She was speaking at a meeting of Brighton and Hove City Council’s Health and Wellbeing Board at Brighton Town Hall on Tuesday (13 September).
Labour councillor Alan Robins asked whether a pharmacy closing at 9pm was providing “late-night” services.
He said: “One thing that struck or amused me (is that) there is one pharmacist in Brighton and Hove that provides late-night emergency contraceptive services. It is open until 8pm.
“Even an old man like me struggles to describe 8pm as late night for emergency pharmaceutical contraceptive services.”
Previously, two Brighton pharmacies were open later. Westons, in Lewes Road, and Ashtons, at the Seven Dials, stayed open until 10pm but now closed at 8pm and 6pm respectively.
The report said that NHS England had made changes which led to the end of “100-hour contracts” for pharmacies.
It said: “The flat-funded Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework 2019 to 2024 has resulted in a decrease in pharmacy remuneration as costs increase and this has affected the opening hours … as pharmacies reduce opening hours to reduce costs.
“The local impact of this is that there are fewer pharmacies open later in the evenings.”
The Health and Wellbeing Board has recommended that a rota is created so that pharmacies can take turns staying open later.
The board’s Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment 2022 said: “Feedback from health services and residents is that a lack of available pharmacy services in the evenings is having an impact on access to health and care.”
Councillors, NHS bosses and debated the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment 2022 – the first since 2018 – at the meeting on Tuesday.
The assessment said: “There were 52 community pharmacies in Brighton and Hove in May 2022.
“There has been a decrease in the number of community pharmacies in the city since the last Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment in 2018, when there were 56.
“At the time of the 2015 Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment, there were 60 community pharmacies in the city.”
A report to the Health and Wellbeing Board said that there were 17.8 pharmacies for 100,000 people in Brighton and Hove – a similar level to the rest of Sussex.
The report said: “Community pharmacies are reasonably well spread across the city, with more present in more densely populated areas.
“However, not all services are available in all pharmacies. Nationally and locally pharmacy numbers have seen a net decrease over the last couple of years.
“The assessment from the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment Steering Group is that there is no gap in community pharmacy provision that results in the need for additional pharmacies.
“However, there are recommendations for developing and, in some cases, extending provision of services in current pharmacies.”
The report also said: “Nearly all city residential areas are within a 20-minute walk of a community pharmacy – and all city areas, except for Stanmer Village, are within 20 minutes of a pharmacy by public transport.
“All residential areas are within a 10-minute drive of a pharmacy.
“There are fewer pharmacies open later in the evenings in the city, compared with the 2018 Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment.
“No pharmacies open later than 8pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday, and no pharmacies open later than 9pm on Thursday and Friday. None open after 6.00pm on Sundays.
“However, a pharmacy located in the Holmbush Shopping Centre, 1.5 miles to the west of the city’s boundary, is open 8am to 8pm on Monday to Saturday and 10am to 4pm on a Sunday.”
Some 84 per cent of “community survey respondents” said that they could find and use an open pharmacy in Brighton and Hove when they needed one, the report said.
It added: “Public satisfaction with pharmacies remains high, with 92 per cent of survey respondents reporting they are very or fairly satisfied with pharmacy services.
“This is an increase in satisfaction since the 2018 Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment, despite a reduction in the number of pharmacies in the city over this period.”
Conservative councillor Vanessa Brown highlighted the lack of knowledge at family doctors’ surgeries about what pharmacy services were available.
She said: “What struck me most while reading the report was the seeming lack of communication between the GPs and the pharmacies.
“It talks about only one GP surgery out of 11 was aware of the advanced or locally commissioned services provided by the pharmacy.
“That amazed me that there seemed to be so little communication between the pharmacies and the doctors using them.
“We need better communications not just between the GPs and pharmacies but also to residents and joining up with care homes and hospitals.”
The director of public health in Brighton and Hove, Alistair Hill, said that “better communication” was one of the recommendations – and another recommendation was to communicate better with the public.
In all, there were 24 recommendations under eight broad headings including vaccination, evening pharmacy provision, community pharmacy capacity, improving health and wellbeing and equality of access to community pharmacy services.
Green councillor Sue Shanks, who chairs the Health and Wellbeing Board, said that she had struggled to book a flu jab appointment and wished her doctor had directed her to a pharmacy.
One of the board’s recommendations is that pharmacies work more closely with family doctors to increase uptake of the NHS flu vaccination programme.
Ashton’s used to be open until 10pm. It is missed. 6pm closing is too early and inconvenient for many in a crisis.