Mixed views on pharmacy

The first round of consultation on whether Southwell needs a another pharmacy, which ends today, has brought divided opinion.

Mr Dharminder Singh submitted the application for a licence to open a pharmacy to Nottinghamshire Teaching Primary Care Trust.

The town already has a Lloyds pharmacy on Church Street and there is a dispensary at Southwell Medical Centre.

Mr Singh said he wanted to introduce some healthy competition.

Mr Singh, who has a pharmacy in Keyworth where he lives, said: “Southwell is a market town with many amenities. There should be a choice for people.

“When you have a monopoly in operation the impetus to improve is no longer there.

“The number of prescriptions issued by Southwell Medical Centre each month is over 16,500. The vast majority of those items would be dispensed by Lloyds as the only pharmacy in the neighbourhood.

“Until people actually have two pharmacies they won’t have anything to compare.”

Mr Singh has looked at several sites in a 500-metre radius of the medical centre but has yet to settle on one for his pharmacy.

He is planning a separate consultation room for reflexology and physiotherapy that can be used without appointment.

He also intends to offer free blood pressure tests, a diabetes screening service, cholesterol and food intolerance tests.

His licence application was not open for public comment. In the first phase of consultation the local pharmacy committee, the local medical group, carers’ federation and local GPs and pharmacies were asked for their views.

Anyone expressing an opinion can comment further in the second 21-day consultation period. The application will then be decided by the primary care trust.

At a meeting last week, Southwell town councillors voted seven to five in favour of Mr Singh’s application.

Mr Brendan Haigh, who backed the application, said: “I believe in free competition and fully support another pharmacy coming to town.”

But another councillor, Mr Peter Pay, said he thought the town did not need another pharmacy and a new one might undermine the services already on offer.

The chairman of Southwell’s Medical Users’ Group, Mr Tony Morris, said: “I can see there is an argument about free competition but I have my reservations as to whether this will be good for the town.

“In the long term I can see there could be a potential threat to the dispensary at the medical centre.”

Lloyds Pharmacy confirmed it had objected to the application. Southwell Medical Surgery refused to comment.

The primary care trust takes a range of issues into account in making the decision including patient access, choice, the provision of existing services, complaints against current services, number of prescriptions dispensed and previous applications.

An application for a pharmacy in Southwell was rejected by the primary care trust in October.