The single number that best predicts pharmacy workload in any UK city is the GP-to-pharmacy ratio — how many GP practices sit in the same 10-mile catchment as each pharmacy. It drives Pharmacy First referral volume, dispensing throughput, clinical service uptake, and, ultimately, hiring pressure.
PharmSee has now analyzed 11 major UK cities using the same methodology: a 10-mile radius from a central postcode, pulling GP practice counts and pharmacy counts from the live NHS Digital ODS dataset. This article ranks them from most stretched to most surplus.
The city league table
| Rank | City | GP practices (10mi) | Pharmacies (10mi) | Ratio | Workload signal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 150 | 106 | 1.42:1 | Most stretched |
| 2 | Brighton | 62 | 48 | 1.29:1 | Very stretched |
| 3 | Leicester | 116 | 93 | 1.25:1 | Stretched |
| 4 | Birmingham | 160 | 150 | 1.07:1 | Slightly stretched |
| 5 | Hastings | 22 | 21 | 1.05:1 | Balanced (warning) |
| 6 | Manchester | 106 | 116 | 0.91:1 | Balanced |
| 7 | Bristol | 59 | 66 | 0.89:1 | Comfortable |
| 8 | Newcastle | 67 | 85 | 0.79:1 | Comfortable |
| 9 | Sheffield | 75 | 97 | 0.77:1 | Surplus |
| 10 | Nottingham | 61 | 84 | 0.73:1 | Surplus |
| 11 | Hull | 33 | 63 | 0.52:1 | Densest coverage |
The spread is enormous. A Liverpool pharmacy faces 2.7x more GP-practice-originated referral pressure than a Hull pharmacy in the same UK pharmacy services market.
What the ratio actually means
For a pharmacy owner, the ratio predicts:
- Pharmacy First revenue ceiling. More GP practices in the catchment means more referrals into the £15-per-consultation scheme.
- NMS (New Medicine Service) throughput. £31.82 per consultation, flowing from first prescriptions in chronic-condition categories. Higher GP density means more first-prescription volume.
- Dispensing baseline. The raw prescription-item feed that is worth £1.29 per dispensed item.
- Hiring pressure. Cities with stretched ratios attract higher pharmacist salary floors and more NHS Jobs vacancies per pharmacy.
The "stretched" cluster (ratio > 1.00)
Liverpool (1.42), Brighton (1.29), Leicester (1.25), Birmingham (1.07), and Hastings (1.05) all run at above-parity — meaning there are more GP practices than pharmacies in the catchment. These are the highest-opportunity markets for Pharmacy First revenue, but they are also where pharmacist workload is toughest.
In vacancy terms, stretched cities correlate with elevated NHS Jobs intensity. Liverpool alone has 61 active pharmacist vacancies in the 10-mile radius (30 from NHS Jobs, 10 from Boots, 8 from Cohens). Brighton and Leicester also sit above the national per-capita NHS Jobs rate.
The "comfortable" middle (0.85-1.00)
Manchester (0.91), Bristol (0.89), and Newcastle (0.79) cluster in the balanced-to-comfortable zone. Pharmacy First referral volume is steady but not overwhelming; hiring is brisk but not distressed. These are the markets where chain pharmacies (Boots, Cohens, Asda, Rowlands) compete on employer brand rather than on salary escalation.
The "surplus" cluster (ratio < 0.80)
Sheffield (0.77), Nottingham (0.73), and above all Hull (0.52) have more pharmacies than GP practices in their catchment. The per-site Pharmacy First revenue opportunity is lower, and the hiring market reflects that — Hull has just 13 active pharmacist vacancies across 63 pharmacies, Sheffield 13 across 97, Nottingham 15 across 84.
For pharmacy operators, surplus markets are harder to justify new-site investment. For pharmacists, they offer better work-life balance and a broader employer mix.
How to use this table
- If you are a pharmacist choosing a city: stretched markets pay more and have more NHS Jobs volume. Surplus markets are quieter and offer more community pharmacy variety.
- If you are a pharmacy owner: stretched markets reward clinical service investment (Pharmacy First, NMS, contraception). Surplus markets reward dispensing efficiency and patient loyalty.
- If you are a location planner: PharmSee's location analyzer lets you plug in any UK postcode and get the same GP/pharmacy count + deprivation + opportunity score instantly.
Caveats and methodology
Every figure above comes from a single 10-mile radius query against PharmSee's NHS ODS-backed database, using the main central postcode for each city (e.g. L1 1JJ, B1 1AA). The radius is held constant to make the comparison meaningful. Smaller towns have very different ratios at different radii — PharmSee's Hastings warning piece explores that sensitivity.
The ratio does not capture patient population, deprivation, or prescribing intensity, all of which matter for actual workload. But as a single-number benchmark for city-level pharmacy market pressure, nothing else comes close.
Continue the atlas
- Search all 13,147 UK pharmacies — PharmSee's full dataset
- See live jobs by city across 11 sources
- England regions ranked by the same metric
Data pulled 10 April 2026 from PharmSee's /api/location/analyze endpoint. 10-mile radius, central city postcodes. Rankings update quarterly as NHS ODS data refreshes.