Town councillors in Warminster have accused the UK’s largest pharmacy chain of failing to keep its assurances following the closure of its store next to The Avenue GP surgery last October.
The accusation comes as Warminster Town Council and the town's MP Dr Andrew Murrison lobby the Integrated Care Board (ICB) for Wiltshire for a third pharmacy to be granted a licence to operate in the town.
They have asked the ICB to step in to resolve the current situation of people queuing for hours to collect the medication they require, and to take urgent steps to secure another pharmacy/pharmacist to meet the undoubted local need.
They say the need is urgent, particularly as up to 2,000 new homes are scheduled to be built in Warminster by 2026 as part of the West Warminster Urban Extension development.
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The council’s town clerk, Tom Dommett also wrote to Boots UK’s chief executive Sebastian James to complain about the inadequate service at its remaining Market Place store.
The letter said: “There is a strong feeling that reassurances given at the time of the closure of the pharmacy next to The Avenue have not been kept.
“The personal experience of councillors and the public is that people are spending a significant time queuing for prescriptions.
“Councillors are also concerned about significant evidence that people had queued up only to find; the prescription is not ready, the prescription is ready but there is no pharmacist, or the pharmacist was there but that the medicine was not available.”
Cllr Steve Jeffries
said: “For people with mobility issues, it is unacceptable to have to queue for up to an hour or more simply to collect their prescriptions, especially where other providers are interested in opening an additional pharmacy.”
Dave Reeves, secretary of Health & Wellbeing in Warminster, said: “I am not surprised that they have been unable to cope but I am disappointed.”
The Avenue pharmacy dealt with over 9,000 prescriptions – far more than Boots’ Market Place store or Bestway Group’s Well Pharmacy in the Cornmarket.
The remaining two pharmacy stores have since been overwhelmed with patients trying to collect repeat prescriptions and new medication, with patients sometimes queuing for more than two hours.
In response, Mr James said: “We are sorry to hear that local residents have been disappointed with their experience at our Market Place pharmacy in recent months.
“We acknowledge there has been some disruption following the consolidation of our Warminster store operations in October with the closure of the Avenue Surgery pharmacy.
“Customer queues and waiting times were temporarily impacted as the Market Place store onboarded new patients and updated its systems to fulfil their prescription requirements.
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“The local team has since worked hard to deliver an improved customer experience. Staffing levels have been increased and this has helped the store to manage queues, reduce waiting times and improve the availability of medicines and readiness of repeat prescriptions.
“Regular visits have been conducted by senior regional pharmacy leaders to enhance operational efficiency and support the store to manage its workload. We have also adjusted dispensing processes to increase capacity and adapted the pharmacy to enhance working space and customer waiting space."
He continued: “We continue to review and adjust the store layout to support queue management and help customers to access healthcare services more quickly.
“Indeed, we are confident that these operational changes are enabling the pharmacy to manage high demand and improve prescription fulfilment, and the store has reported improved service levels and shorter waiting times in recent weeks.
“We are also in communication with local GPs to discuss how we can align and optimise our support for patients, including on opening hours.”
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