CVS and Walmart cut pharmacy hours, close some locations earlier, citing pharmacist shortage

An obvious shortage of pharmacists is forcing CVS and Walmart to scale back the hours of its pharmacies, as they close earlier in 1000’s of locations.

Beginning in March, each retailers will both cut or shift the hours that their pharmacies function in response to staffing shortages and waning client demand as the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic recedes. The Wall Street Journal first reported the information.

Walmart, which has pharmacies in most of its 4,600 US locations, will close them two hours earlier, at 7 pm. CVS will shift or cut hours at about 6,000 US pharmacies.

For CVS, adjusting its hours is an try to make sure its “pharmacy groups can be found to serve sufferers once they’re most wanted,” the corporate stated in a press release to CNN. The adjustments are a part of its “common course of enterprise,” it added, so its hours meet buyer demand.

In a press release to CNN, Walmart stated the brand new hours are the results of “direct suggestions” from its pharmacy staff and prospects.

“Walmart has a robust and unimaginable pharmacy workforce, and we’re making this modification to not solely improve their work-life stability but in addition to keep up the very best stage of service for our prospects,” a Walmart spokesperson stated. “By positioning our groups within the hours the place our prospects say they need to go to our pharmacy, we’re higher in a position to ship glorious customer support.”

Walgreens introduced final yr that it was lowering hours at some of its pharmacies due to staffing shortages.

On Friday, the corporate advised CNN that it has “at instances needed to regulate retailer or pharmacy hours at some of our locations as we work to stability staffing and sources available in the market to greatest meet our affected person and buyer demand.” A Walgreens spokesperson added that it has seen “constructive staffing traits for the previous a number of months as we work to return extra shops to regular working hours.”

Pharmacists are going through a staffing crunch that is hit many different fields of labor, however it’s significantly affecting domestically owned pharmacies. According to a survey launched final yr by the National Community Pharmacists Association, greater than three-quarters of group pharmacists are having a “powerful time filling open positions,” which is leading to longer wait instances for purchasers.