Boots Pharmacy in Childwall is a vital lifeline of our local community and is sadly in the process of being closed down.

 

Please sign and share this petition across social media and community groups to show your support for keeping it open.

 

Boots Pharmacy Childwall is well used by residents, who rely on the store to get their regular medicines and prescriptions. Many current customers at the Boots Pharmacy transferred there due to the excellent and reliable service it offers, after poor experiences elsewhere. 

 

Increasingly we are encouraged by our GP surgeries and the NHS to utilise the advice and services of our local pharmacies. However, increasing numbers of local pharmacies are being closed permanently, and our community would be left with one less essential health service. 

 

Boots Pharmacy Childwall is located on Childwall Abbey Road and is very convenient for residents to walk to and access. Not everyone has access to a car, and vitally the Childwall store has wheelchair access, with adjacent public transfer links, meaning the store provides an essential service to those with mobility issues.

 

The Childwall Boots Pharmacy experiences great footfall, providing a vital service to many older residents who prefer or are unable to order online, and who can manage the short distance to the store.

 

In our area over 26% of households have at least one person with a long-term health problem or disability, for whom a closeby and efficiently run pharmacy is a regular essential service. Over 20% of households in the area do not have access to a car, and over 23% of residents are over the age of 60, who are therefore more likely to need to collect prescription medications regularly, (Ward Consensus 2011).

 

Since 2017 more pharmacies have been closing than have been opening in England. Between July 2017 and July 2023, the number of pharmacies in England has fallen by 914, despite a continuously increasing UK population growth rate, (GOfS, 2021). 

 

This has been caused by multiple factors; increased patient demand, funding cuts, staff shortages, rising rents and costs, as well as supply issues. All while the government asks our pharmacies to do more to ease pressure on GPs.

 

This year’s collective pharmacy closures alone will displace an estimated one million prescriptions a month, for our remaining pharmacies to struggle to accommodate, who have to pick up the workload with no extra funding or support (Pharmaceutical Journal, 2023).

 

Boots is currently in the process of closing down 300 stores in the UK, (including our local Penny Lane and Greenbank branches), so let's send a message; that we refuse to accept that our essential Childwall Boots should become one of these losses.

 

Welfare should always come before profits, have your say on the closure of our local pharmacy before it's too late!