Hastings has 21 pharmacies, 22 GP practices, and only 13 active pharmacy vacancies within a 10-mile radius. On the surface, those numbers look balanced — boringly so. But they form an early-warning pattern PharmSee has seen before, most recently in Brighton three years ago, before Brighton's pharmacy squeeze made national headlines.

Our live data suggests Hastings is one slow-bleed year away from the same pressure.

The Hastings Baseline (April 2026)

Source: PharmSee live data, 10-mile radius from TN34 1HN and BN1 2BD respectively. April 2026 snapshot.

Hastings' 1.05:1 ratio means every pharmacy has, on average, a GP practice and a fraction more feeding it. That doesn't sound like a crisis — until you factor in the town's deprivation index, the population density, and the concentration of elderly residents who represent the bulk of chronic-disease prescribing.

Why Brighton Is the Warning, Not the Model

Brighton's own 1.10:1 ratio was viewed as manageable when PharmSee first mapped it in 2024. Two years later, the Brighton and Hove coastal corridor is now one of the most-cited examples of a "pharmacy desert" — not because pharmacies disappeared but because GP referrals grew faster than pharmacy capacity. Key drivers were:

1. Pharmacy First rollout pushing minor-illness walk-ins to pharmacies without matching staffing increases.
2. Rental pressure on high-street pharmacies from non-pharmacy retail.
3. Locum flight to London for better rates — our locum squeeze analysis shows 1,385 locum vacancies nationally as of April 2026.

Hastings faces every one of those pressures at higher intensity. Town-centre LSOAs are in decile 1 (the most deprived 10% of England) — so prescribing volumes per pharmacy are higher than Brighton's decile-4 average. And our 13 open vacancies in a 21-pharmacy town means 62% of the town's pharmacies already have something unfilled.

Who's Hiring in Hastings?

Two things jump out:

• Boots plus NHS make up 77% of active hiring. Independent and mid-size chains are almost absent — a signal that marginal operators have either filled their rotas or given up recruiting through public listings.
• Tesco and Morrisons are active. Supermarket pharmacy hiring in a town of 90,000 residents is unusual — it usually implies the chains are trying to fill brand new or previously-closed instore pharmacies.

The Three Things That Turn Hastings Into Brighton

From our cross-region pattern matching, Hastings crosses into "squeeze" territory when:

1. Ratio crosses 1.15:1 — if even one pharmacy closes without replacement, Hastings jumps to 1.16:1 overnight (22 GPs / 19 pharmacies in scope).
2. NHS Jobs share exceeds 50% — the current 38% is a leading indicator. Above 50% means the supply is shifting to hospital/PCN and away from community.
3. Deprivation and workload concentrate — town-centre decile-1 LSOAs driving demand upward while pharmacies retreat to suburbs.

What This Means for Operators

• Independent operators: Hastings is currently the cheapest coastal entry point in the South East. A well-staffed independent at 1.05:1 could capture Pharmacy First referrals the big chains are missing.
• Boots and national chains: The hiring concentration risk is real. If Hastings goes the way of Brighton, Boots loses its NHS Pharmacy First feeder advantage.
• NHS commissioners: The 1.05:1 ratio is the exact moment to add a locum support scheme or pilot extended-hours funding — before closures push it to 1.20:1.

Further Reading

• Brighton GP-to-pharmacy ratio: how the coastal squeeze started
• Coastal pharmacy deserts: Brighton, Dorset, Norfolk
• Live Hastings pharmacy jobs
• Hastings pharmacy search and analytics

Hastings in 2026 is where Brighton was in 2023. The question for investors, commissioners, and pharmacists is whether the town gets ahead of the squeeze or joins the coastal desert list.