Unless chemists receive an emergency financial infusion to stop additional closures, patients may have to drive kilometres to obtain their treatments and wait days for essential medications.

As the industry is on the brink of collapse and thousands of small companies are about to be further impacted by measures outlined in the Budget, pharmacies throughout the United Kingdom have informed me that they are running out of money.

Patients now have to wait longer and go across county boundaries to get medications because many have already begun shutting on weekends and cutting weekday business hours.

As loss-making medical supplies are struck, people who depend on medication for ADHD, Parkinson's, or Alzheimer's are trekking from pharmacist to chemist, some of whom are up to 40 kilometres from their homes.

The “escalating crisis” was highlighted this week when thousands more pharmacies said they will stop a number of services in the new year, including the end of free medicine deliveries and extended opening hours, unless the Government steps in to help.

A £1.7bn funding black hole is about to widen as pharmacies will be hit by the rise in employer national insurance contributions and national minimum wage, announced in the Budget.

Pharmacies in England said they have seen their funding cut by 40 per cent in the past decade, even though they are dispensing record levels of prescriptions and are supporting the NHS by providing more clinical services. A previous five-year contract with the health service ended in April and has yet to be replaced, leaving the outlook bleak.

A survey by Community Pharmacy England earlier this year found two-thirds of community pharmacies in England are operating at a loss, while one in six may close within the next year.

Sukhi Basra, who runs a small pharmacy in Victora, central London, said patients are already travelling from far afield seeking medicine due to shortages and demand.

“I’ve had patients travelling from Kent, 40 miles away, and I would be their 11th or 12th pharmacy they’ve come to. I feel really bad saying I don’t have what they need either.

“You know the urgency of the drug – for example for ADHD, Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s – so you can feel the angst in that patient or parent. You don’t forget that feeling when you have to let someone down.”

Asked if that situation will worsen without a new funding settlement, she said: “Absolutely. There are lots of examples today of medicines being given out at a loss and I know I can’t refuse that patient that medicine if it’s sitting on my shelf, which I would never do anyway. But if you have 200 patients on that drug in one month the losses add up.

“I’m not the only one. In all the thousands of pharmacies in the UK I can guarantee you every one can name the top 10 medicines they are losing money on.”

Kevin Simpson, 66, who runs seven community pharmacies in Teesside and Co Durham, said the situation has progressively worsened over the last 18 months.

“Some of my pharmacies have already run out of money and the ones that have got money are running out of it. It’s an awful position to be in and some businesses will have to close unless the government funds what we do properly. I’m not confident we’ll get any extra money this year and that is distressing.”