Petition to Save Boots Pharmacy at 37 Southmead Road, Bristol, BS10 5DW

To: Sebastian James, President and Managing Director Boots

Dear Mr James

Please do not close our local pharmacy down!

Boots’ Pharmacy at 37 Southmead Road, Bristol, BS10 5DW is listed for closure in January 2024.

There has been a pharmacy operating on this site for a very long time, serving the local community.

Boots took the shop over some years ago and it is a very busy, well used and well-loved local pharmacy. 

The local community has not been consulted about this closure and the news has come as a real blow to us.

The Branch serves a wide community across several neighbourhoods in North Bristol, parts of Horfield, Henleaze, Southmead and Westbury on Trym and is always full of customers, particularly accessing the pharmacy as well as buying the retail staples ranging from shampoo to vitamins.

The Branch is particularly important for those in the local community who have no means of transport and a significant proportion of the customers walk to the Branch as it is surrounded by residential streets.  The Henleaze Branch to which customers are being signposted is already very busy, with itself having long queues.  Given both Boots branches are always busy, with queues, there is clearly no capacity for customers from the Southmead Road Branch to be accommodated by the Henleaze Road Branch, if it were a realistic option, which we do not believe it to be.

The staff provide a trusted and welcoming service.  The Pharmacist and their colleagues are welcoming and provide a service to the community that surrounds them.  They know their customers by name and for the elderly customers in particular, of which there are many, they provide assistance which cannot be accessed by this group who do not have ready access to technology for a number of reasons.  Older people in particular, with their complex medicines regimes, as well as families with young children - rely upon the advice and expertise of the pharmacist. 

Customers also use the Branch to buy over the counter remedies, relying upon the expertise and advice of the Pharmacist.  This is in line with the national government and NHS advice to practice greater self-care and self-help to meet our own health and well-being needs.  This relies upon the community having access to a trained and qualified Pharmacist, who are not available, for example, in non-pharmacy shops, such as supermarkets. 

The pharmacy at this Boots branch therefore not only dispenses large numbers of vital prescriptions for patients / customers who will be unable to access other branches or alternatives, but also provides over the counter remedies. 

Boots Branch at 37 Southmead Road, Bristol provides a key service to our community and we are calling upon you and your company to rethink your plans for closure and not to take away our local pharmacy.