Worsley MP Barbara Keeley has rounded on government minsters for putting forward damaging funding cuts for community pharmacies in Salford and across the country.
£170 million is due to be slashed from budgets for community pharmacy services in 2016/17.
More cuts are expected in following years.
In the long run the 6% pharmacy cut is expected to shave less than 0.2% from the annual NHS budget.
But analysts say around 25% of community pharmacies could close, with significant job losses.
The Department of Health plans to cut funding from £2.8bn this year to 2.63bn by October 2016.
The chair of Salford and Trafford Local Pharmaceutical Committee, Varun Jairath, said the government was putting lives at risk with the planned cuts.
“The Department of Health has said in the past that community pharmacy is an under-utilised source of patient care, for example in monitoring patients with long-term conditions, yet it is now shunning its own advice.”
The co-chair of NHS Alliance, Dr Mark Spencer, told Pharmacy Business that the cuts were “extremely short-sighted”, warning that already over-subscribed GPs would feel the strain when pharmacies were forced to close.
Speaking at Westminster Barbara Keeley MP said: “I am deeply concerned about the Government’s proposed cuts to funding which could lead to the loss of local community pharmacy services.
“The loss of a number of pharmacies could hit communities in Salford very hard.
“Community pharmacies provide essential services, dispensing medication and providing information and advice which can prevent the need for people to visit their GP for common health problems.
“The cuts will mean that pharmacies will be forced to reduce staffing levels and it may affect services currently offered for free, such as home delivery of medications.
“Community pharmacies help to remove pressure from our already overstretched health and social care services. They are valued by the local communities they serve.
“I am calling on Tory ministers to rethink these damaging and reckless funding cuts and to work to protect community pharmacies in future.”
The Department of Health will consult on the plans until 24 March.
