ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

Just three pharmacies among up to 750 facing closure in London could be saved under a government lifeline scheme, it was claimed today.

Thousands of pharmacies across the country are at risk after ministers decided last month to cut 12 per cent from the payments they receive from the NHS from December.

This will be cut by a further 7.4 per cent from April under the scheme to target NHS cash and cut funding in areas with “clusters” of pharmacies.

The Government has launched a pharmacy access scheme, which seeks to mitigate the impact of the cuts, but the National Pharmacy Association said only three London pharmacies qualified for help despite being in areas with “higher health needs”. However, research by the House of Commons library concluded that 15 threatened pharmacies in London qualified. It found that 13 of 73 London constituencies qualified for the lifeline scheme, with the biggest losses likely to be in the Cities of London and Westminster (21 pharmacies), Holborn and St Pancras (11) and East Ham (nine).

Between 470 and 750 pharmacies in London could face closure and MPs are today set to warn that this will lengthen the queues to see GPs.

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s shadow health secretary, who called the debate, said: “These cuts will be totally devastating for pharmacies and the people who rely on them.”

Health minister David Mowat said the Government aimed to create a “modern pharmacy sector that is fit for the 21st century”.