2025 has been a pivotal year for RWA Pharmacy - one that clearly reflects the health and direction of the wider sector. Our trajectory has closely mirrored that of community pharmacy: every step forward has revealed not just growth, but the key pressure points and the resilience shaping the industry.
This year, we’ve supported all of our customers in more ways than ever before. Not because we suddenly decided to “do more” - but because the problems our clients are now facing have fundamentally changed and become significantly tougher.
Not long ago, the formula was relatively straightforward: run a tight operation, look after your patients, and the profit would follow. Today, that equation no longer holds up.
Pharmacies are now expected to:
In other words, the workload hasn’t just increased; it's shifted entirely.
In this blog, I’ll unpack what the latest 2025 data is telling us about the pharmacy sector, spotlight the key trends in dispensing and services, and explore how RWA’s pharmacy business intelligence can help turn this pressure into a thorough plan for the year ahead.
As of November 1st 2025, the pharmacy landscape in England shows a sector under strain, but also actively moving toward a more service-led model.
What follows is a breakdown of the key structural changes, dispensing activity, and service performance we’ve seen across 2025 and what they mean for how pharmacies can position themselves for 2026.
Total open community pharmacies (England):
Distance Selling Premises (DSPs):
Although the total number of pharmacies fell by 35, the notable trend is the 56-pharmacy reduction in brick-and-mortar sites, compared to a +21-pharmacy increase in DSPs earlier in the year. The closure rate slowed significantly compared to previous years, suggesting a stabilisation of the sector.
Industry-wide dispensing remained robust:
Breakdown by ownership model:
This steady upward trajectory reinforces the reliance of the NHS and local communities on pharmacies to absorb front-line pressure traditionally handled by general practice.
3.1 New Medicine Service (NMS).
Financial impact:
The under-performance against NMS targets represents one of the sector’s largest missed opportunities for both patient benefit and revenue stability. However, the expanded NMS criteria, most notably the inclusion of depression medicines, add around 20 additional NMS opportunities per branch per month. This is expected to materially improve target achievement rates going forward.
Blood pressure checks:
Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM):
Concerns remain around ABPM possibly becoming part of the Pharmacy First payment gateway, given the requirement to complete at least one ABPM per month to access the £1,000 base payment.
A key area of growth and challenge:
Average activity:
This continues to grow steadily as awareness increases and GP access remains stretched across much of England.
The ideal margin split for a healthy community pharmacy is:
The current picture:
Ensuring accurate claiming of fees is essential:
These alone can be the difference between operating at a sustainable margin vs. falling behind the viability threshold.
The overarching message is clear: pharmacy viability increasingly depends on service delivery, not procurement gain.
Below are some strategic takeaways from 2025, along with how RWA Pharmacy’s business intelligence solutions can help you respond with confidence in 2026.
Growth in NMS, hypertension, Pharmacy First and contraception confirms the service-led model the NHS expects from community pharmacy. RWA Pharmacy’s purpose-built models within our BI solutions help you manage this shift by identifying suitable patients for each service, using PMR data and individual dispensing histories to target the right people and create a more personalised experience.
Whether in people, technology, or process optimisation, investment is no longer optional. It’s the price of staying competitive. Pharmacies that invest intelligently are already seeing measurable gains in both revenue and resilience. Our analytics can help you pinpoint where that investment will have the greatest impact.
New hub-and-spoke legislation expected in 2026 will allow high-volume dispensaries to outsource more routine dispensing, freeing up capacity for higher-value services. Our pharmacy business intelligence solutions can help you identify the most suitable prescriptions and volumes for your hub, so you can make smarter, data-driven decisions about what to centralise.
Pharmacy closures are slowing, item volumes are rising, and service infrastructure is maturing. The pressure hasn’t disappeared, but the direction of travel is more positive. With robust data and the right insight, pharmacies can move from firefighting to forward planning as we head into 2026.
"I've had a truly outstanding experience with RWA, and it's largely thanks to the incredible support from the team. The platform itself is brilliant, and the reports are invaluable for improving our performance and making smarter decisions across our pharmacy group. It's user-friendly and packed with the data insights we need!"
Asif Alrahi, Pharmacy Express.
Despite a difficult start to the year and uneven impacts from funding uplifts, the direction of travel for community pharmacy in England is cautiously encouraging. Service demand is increasing, clinical integration is strengthening, and the sector is steadily shifting toward a more sustainable, patient-centric model.
Success in 2026 will depend on:
If the sector continues on this path, community pharmacies will be better positioned to meet patient needs and remain viable within an evolving NHS landscape.
RWA Pharmacy is continuously iterating and integrating new technologies and partnerships to support every aspect of pharmacy performance – with a particular focus on time-and-motion analysis and understanding the cost drivers that shape overall margins. Throughout 2026, you’ll see our team push these capabilities even further!
To find out more about how we can support and grow your pharmacy business, contact: craig.stringfellow@realworldanalytics.com
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