Thousands of pharmacies in England 'at risk of closure'

[Northerner]

Thousands of local pharmacies in England are at risk of closure because of cuts by the Department of Health, a campaign group has said.

Pharmacy Voice, which represents High Street chemists, says that without access to a community pharmacist one in four people would visit their busy local GP instead.

But the government says outlets in some areas are too close together.

It proposes giving more people access to a community pharmacy.

The Department of Health in England says the average community pharmacist receives about £220,000 in NHS funding each year.

It also says too many chemists are too close to each other, with 40% located in clusters of three or more within a 10-minute walk of each other.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36343005

They said the same about post offices

 

[Diabeticliberty]

Hmmmmmmm................my own pharmacist was the first person to diagnose my type 1 diabetes after my previous doctor who I am ever more convinced would not have been out of place with a bone through his nose completely misdiagnosed me and gave me a prescription for a bag of 'magic beans' and a patch for my left eye. Pharmacies in my own area provide a fairly vital service and offer a link between the public and the health service and GP's who are becoming ever less reachable due to the swelling of their surgeries and patient numbers and duties that they are being expected to undertake. My local pharmacy is under threat of the axe and they had a petition on their counter 3 weeks ago asking people to sign to voice their objection to closures. I took a blank sheet and made 3 photocopies and went around my local area door knocking asking my local community to support them. I am very disappointed to have to add that for the most part people were apathetic. 'You don't know what you got till it's gone' was the song that kept ringing in my ears. Once these places start to go we are all up s*it creek without the proverbial paddle. I am a great believer that we get the society we deserve. We should not complain then when we are not prepared to get up and say something or do something because 'well it doesn't affect me'. YES IT BLOODY WELL DOES 😡

 

[grovesy]

This does not surprise me, this story first started to rumble a while. I am fearful what will happen to my local one when the owners retire, they have run it for over 30 years and they live local too!
My GP has reduced services in the last few months, and did not replace the last Doctor who retired.

 

[Northerner]

All seems to be a bit of a nonsense (nothing new there, then ), given the fact that they are constantly telling people to speak to their pharmacist about things rather than go to the GP They tried to save money by changing NHS Direct to NHS 111, with fewer clinically-trained staff, it just ended with more people being sent to their GPs or A&E. They closed walk-in centres to save money - again, placing greater pressure on GPs and A&E. They need to stop treating healthcare like a marketable 'commodity' and start funding it properly, even if that means a ring-fenced tax. No-one is gaining from the current attitude to the NHS, certainly not Joe Public. Everyone benefits from good access to high-quality healthcare, even if you don't need it personally. How many 'working days' are lost from people having to juggle jobs to squeeze in appointments, or through avoidable and/or treatable illnesses? By all means streamline things and avoid waste, but not to the point of collapse

 

[Amigo]

I've started using the smaller pharmacies now because I'm totally disallusioned with Boots. We walked into Boots Saturday and all tills and even the pharmacy counter were completely deserted...not a member of staff to be seen. I actually thought we'd accidentally walked into a shop that had been evacuated! The service is deplorable! Not sure if others find that of Boots.

Sainsbury's pharmacies seem to have sold up to another company too. Lloyds I think.

 

[Stitch147]

My chemist which is attached to my dr's surgery are great. I hate using Boots or any of the supermarket ones. I hope they leave mine alone.

 

[grovesy]

I asked one day in my Sainsburys one to buy Omperzole, said was not available over counter , which I knew was not correct as I had bought before. I then proceeded to get from my local one and purchase.

 

[trophywench]

Was on the counter at mine a fortnight ago - I made sure everyone in there at the same time signed it too!