Update on Pharmacy application to be located at the junction of Southmead Road and Wellington Hill West - REFUSED - Applicant is appealing the decision please write your letter of support TODAY!

We are very disappointed that the new pharmacy proposal has been turned down by the SW Collaborative Commissioning Hub Committee.  

However Mr Tanzil Ahmed, the pharmacist applicant, is going to APPEAL this decision but does need your letters of support RIGHT NOW.  Please email lakepharmacybristol@gmail.com 

When you email please include why it is difficult for you to go anywhere else for your medication or pharmacist advice.

If you are happy to share your personal information, maybe your age, the road you live in or your postcode, your ailments etc to explain the circumstances that make it important for you to have a local pharmacy in this location.  Many of us have experienced waiting, standing in long queues in, having to go back later as your medicines were not available, long waits for buses, difficulties getting on and off buses either with your mobility issues or you maybe have children and a buggy etc.

Thank you to those who have already written to the lakepharmacybristol@gmail.com but if you haven’t written in support of his appeal please do so as we really would like a local pharmacy back in our area.

The applicant has a right of appeal but that is only for 30 days from the date of the letter that was sent out - which was 28th May.  He would like to appeal and has asked that anyone who supports the opening of this pharmacy on or near the old Boots Southmead Road site, please write to him as soon as possible so he can add them to his appeal documents.

Your previous letters went to the Committee but this is what they concluded:

“The SW Committee noted the comments submitted by patients and recognised some of them are elderly, however, there is no real evidence provided to demonstrate that accessing pharmaceutical services from the other pharmacies in the area is challenging.”

They noted the petition but didn’t seem to acknowledge the large numbers of people who opposed the closure of the Boots locally.

It is also frustrating to know that other pharmacies that have objected to this site having a pharmacy apparently include the companies who own the pharmacy on Stoke Lane, and in Henbury and central Southmead – places that to the best of our knowledge none of the patients who used the local Boots pharmacy would even consider travelling to, even if there were bus services to all of them, which there are not.

They also talk about having medicines delivered but we do not how this helps with accessing advice from your local pharmacist which the NHS is always asking us to do instead of talking to your GP Surgery.  Our medicines would not fit through our letter box!

Their decision report - see full report here - runs to 8 pages and then concludes:

 "Decision 

36. The SW Committee was of the opinion that the application SHOULD NOT BE GRANTED as conferring a significant benefit, because:

• There are a significant number of pharmacy providers within 0.9 miles of the proposed location, with the nearest being 0.7 miles away 

• There is a wide range of opening hours provided by these pharmacies, from 9am to 6pm weekdays and 9am to 5:30 on Saturday 

• The area has good public transport links, enabling access for those who do not walk or have access to a car 

• Granting the application would not confer significant benefits on people sharing a protected characteristic 

• Granting the application would not lead to significant benefits by virtue of innovation"

We find it astonishing that they simply do not understand that to catch a bus to these other pharmacies, which they seem to think are so close, involves first walking as far as the old pharmacy just to catch the bus.  Then waiting for a bus (and many residents have got soaked doing just that), then standing for very long times - e.g. in Henleaze Boots pharmacy - then having to do the return journey.  Often the pharmacies don't have everything that is needed and residents / patients have to go home and do the repeat journey another day.  They seem oblivious to the concept that when people need prescription medication from a pharmacy it is because they are unwell.

We had about 900 signatures on this petition when they considered the application but they seem to have been pretty dismissive of our concerns.  They were shown maps to show them how easy it is for us to access other pharmacies and one of the Committee - we don't know who the Committee members were - was cited as having local knowledge and told them about the public transport options and that the pharmacy site had very little parking outside the shops.  This of course is very misleading given that yes, there are only 2 parking spots right outside, but the turn over is rapid as no one parks there for the day.  Just a few yards away there are probably about 15 car parking spaces on either side of Southmead Road, at which there are usually available spaces, unlike on Henleaze Road.  

NHS don’t believe that pharmacy services being offered or travelling is a problem – so we really need to focus on a few of these points.

For example 

• Irregularity of bus / use of bus
• Lack of medication
• Extensive queues 

Really we feel that the NHS should be putting patient needs at the forefront of their decision making rather than just pretty much dismissing our difficulties in accessing alternative pharmacies, or when we do they are simply not good enough.