Barnet said in June the Fairview closure could leave a gap. New analysis says it does not: 71 pharmacies become 70, and no pharmacy nearby opens Sunday.

Barnet’s public health officers have asked the borough’s Health and Wellbeing Board to withdraw its own finding that the closure of the pharmacy at Finchley Memorial Hospital left a gap in local pharmacy provision.

In June the board noted an assessment that the loss of Fairview Pharmacy “will potentially result in a gap in pharmaceutical provision”. A report to the board’s meeting this morning says fresh analysis does not support that, and asks members to agree instead that the evidence “does not indicate a gap in pharmaceutical provision that changes the overall conclusions” of the borough’s Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment.

The pharmacy closed on 30 August 2026. Barnet Live reported the closure dates and the prescription re-nomination deadline in August.

What changed between June and September

The report, by the Director of Public Health, says officers went back to the Integrated Care Board after June and drew a distinction the earlier paper had blurred. A supplementary statement is a short factual record that a pharmacy has gone. A finding that pharmaceutical need has materially changed is a bigger claim, and has to be backed by analysis.

Officers then commissioned that analysis. Its conclusion is that removing one pharmacy from a network of 71 does not move the borough-wide picture much.

  • Pharmacy locations in Barnet fall from 71 to 70.
  • That is a change from 17.5 to 17.3 pharmacies per 100,000 residents.
  • In West Finchley, locations fall from seven to six, or from 35.3 to 30.3 per 100,000.
  • Modelled 15-minute driving coverage stays at 100% in every scenario tested.

The weekend is where it shows

The modelling splits walking access by time of day, and that is where the closure registers.

Bar chart of the share of Barnet residents within a modelled 15-minute walk of an open pharmacy after the Fairview closure: weekday daytime 82.4 per cent, weekday after 6pm 69.6 per cent, Saturday after 2pm 51.1 per cent, Sunday morning 38.9 per cent, Sunday afternoon 36.3 per cent
Chart by Barnet Live
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Weekday daytime walking access is unchanged at 82.4%, and weekday evening access is unchanged at 69.6%. The falls are all at the weekend:

  • Saturday after 2pm: 52.3% to 51.1%.
  • Sunday morning: 40.5% to 38.9%.
  • Sunday afternoon: 38.0% to 36.3%, the largest drop in the borough.

The report describes that last fall as 1.6 percentage points. Its own figures, 38.0% to 36.3%, give 1.7. The difference is a rounding point, not a dispute about direction.

Close to the hospital the picture is sharper than the borough average. Two pharmacies sit within roughly a 15-minute walk of the old Fairview site on weekdays. One of the two opens on Saturday. Neither is recorded as open on Sunday. Fairview opened 10am to 4pm on both Saturday and Sunday.

The COVID vaccination point the report does not settle

Fairview was a small dispenser and an unusually large vaccinator.

  • It reported 23,828 prescription items, against 179,812 at Carters Pharmacy and 63,349 at Gordon Smith Pharmacy, the two nearest. That is about 0.41% of Barnet’s dispensing.
  • It reported 2,289 advanced service activities, broadly in line with its neighbours.
  • It reported 1,126 COVID-19 vaccinations, about 10.1% of all vaccination activity in the Barnet dataset used for the analysis. Neither of the two nearest pharmacies recorded any COVID-19 vaccination activity at all.

The report does not claim that gap is filled. It says continuity of COVID-19 vaccination should be taken up with the Integrated Care Board through commissioning, “rather than treated, by itself, as evidence of a wider gap in pharmaceutical provision”. It also warns that dispensing volumes at other pharmacies do not prove they have spare capacity, or that arrangements such as home delivery, monitored dosage systems and specialist supply transfer across automatically.

Officers are blunt that the June view was not wrong about the pharmacy’s value, only about what follows from it. The report says the conclusion “should not be interpreted as minimising the local value of the pharmacy or the inconvenience and loss experienced by some residents”, and records that residents and partners argued for keeping it.

Why it closed

The reason was given at the June meeting and is not a Barnet decision. The Director of Public Health told the board it was “a specific type of contract which was coming to an end”, a contract type NHS England has discontinued generally, and that the closure was “purely a commissioning decision”. Commissioning sits with NHS England and the Integrated Care Board, not the council. The board was told future plans for the space were unknown, and the executive director for communities, adults and health suggested the site could suit a pharmacy within a future Neighbourhood Health Centre.

What it means for you

  • If you still have prescriptions going to Fairview, they are going nowhere. Change your nominated pharmacy in the NHS App or through your GP surgery.
  • Check Sunday opening before you rely on it. The two pharmacies nearest Finchley Memorial are not recorded as opening on Sunday. The NHS find-a-pharmacy service lists hours, and Barnet’s own health assets map plots every pharmacy in the borough.
  • If you had a COVID-19 vaccination at Fairview, the report does not identify a like-for-like local replacement. Book through the NHS rather than assuming the nearest pharmacy offers it.
  • If you used home delivery or a dosage box, ask your new pharmacy directly whether it provides the same service. The report says these do not necessarily transfer.
  • The supplementary statement is a public record. Once published it sits alongside the Barnet Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment 2025-2028 and is what NHS commissioners read when anyone applies to open a pharmacy in the borough.

What we could not confirm

The board met at 9.30am today at Hendon Town Hall and its minutes are not published yet, so this report covers what officers asked the board to agree, not what it decided. The revised supplementary statement is dated 24 September 2026 and is written to supersede the version the board saw in June. We will report the outcome when the minutes appear.

Sources: Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment Update and Appendix A, Health and Wellbeing Board, 24 September 2026; minutes of the board’s meeting of 18 June 2026.