TWO North-East MPs have taken their fight against plans to slash community pharmacy budgets to Parliament - amid fears almost 200 across the region are at risk of closure.

Labour MPs Phil Wilson and Anna Turley spoke in the House of Commons during a debate on the issue - which follows a Government's announcement last December that it intends to cut £170m from the community pharmacy services budget, with a further 3.4 per cent cut the following year.

This is despite a national petition gaining more than two million signatures asking it to reconsider and those in the profession arguing that it will result in people turning to already overstretched GP and hospital Accident& Emergency services.

Mr Wilson, who is MP for Sedgefield, said about 3,000 pharmacies, including 180 in the North-East and North Yorkshire, are at risk if the cuts go ahead.

"Community pharmacies are an integral part of the social fabric of many of our towns and villages,” he said.

“There are 22 pharmacies in my constituency. Although nine may be protected and only because of the campaigning of local communities and the Labour Opposition. According to the House of Commons Library, the remaining 13 won't be protected and six could close.

“The cuts mean that each pharmacy will lose £14,500 or over £300,000 in Sedgefield.

“For the Durham, Darlington and Tees area the figure is about £4 million.

“At least 155 pharmacies are at risk of closure in the North-East. This will put more pressure on those that remain, GP surgeries and A&E.

“This is a backward step for or communities, the ill and the elderly.”

Announcing the cuts, health minister David Mowat said: "Every penny saved by this re-set will be reinvested and reallocated back into our NHS to ensure the very best patient care".

"We do not believe that the current funding system does enough to promote either efficiency or quality; nor does it promote the integration with the rest of the NHS that we, and pharmacists themselves, would like to see."

But Redcar MP, Ms Turley, told Wednesday's debate that the funding cuts would see a quarter of Teesside chemists close, including six in Middlesbrough, a town ranked ninth in the country for health deprivation.

“Community pharmacies are a valued and important public service, especially for the elderly, disabled and people with long term illnesses who struggle to travel far," she said.

“My inbox and post bag are full of people who are concerned about what these cuts will mean for pharmacies in Redcar and Cleveland.

“Cutting back on community pharmacies will also put more pressure on already overstretched GP surgeries and A&E departments so the cost will just be spread to elsewhere in the health service.

“Patients in Teesside will suffer under these plans so instead of pushing ahead I urge the Government to go back to the negotiating table and look at them again.”

Pharmacist and a director of Phillips Chemists in Trimdon, Colin Vallence, said the move was a “backward step” and accused the Government of making “hypocritical statements”.

He said: “The Government is saying it wants people to go to community pharmacies before they have to put pressure on GPs or A&E services."

Mr Vallence, a pharmacist for more than 30 years, also criticised the Government for “completely ignoring” reports indicating that pharmacies should be kept open.

“Patients are going to lose out whatever happens here and the Government seem determined to push through this reduction in funding to pharmacies,” he said.

“I think it’s very important that accessibility remains.”

Michael Maguire, of Marton Pharmacy, in Middlesbrough, said: “From my own business point of view and a patient’s point of view it’s absolutely crazy.

“It’s going to mean more patients are going to have to go to GPs or A&E which will only make the situation worse.”

Mr Maguire said he would lose £5,000 a month if the cuts were implemented which would directly impact on the number of staff he could employ and the free services his pharmacy provides.

“It’s just an impossibly large amount so the first thing I’m doing is looking at all the free services but if we stope those the people who will be hit the hardest are going to be the vulnerable and the elderly and that’s just against everything we believe in so it’s an impossible situation,” he said.

“I think they are trying to make out that they are just targeting the fat cats but we are the people who will be affected – my dad opened this in 1961 and I took over 25 years ago; it’s a generational thing and a family business and we have staff to think about too.

“It’s quite a trying time for pharmacies right across the board.”