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Patients continue to oppose pharmacies
Border pharmacy application withdrawn due to opposition
Dispensing doctor news on the BBC and local press
Dr Allan Tennant reports
22nd of July 2010
From the south-west to the north-east of Scotland patients continue to complain about the recent successful pharmacy applications in rural areas.
Mr Semple the owner of TLC Pharmacy goes on the offensive. Whilst Unicare pharmacy has withdrawn its application in the Borders.
Borders
The BBC is reporting that proposals for a pharmacy in Newcastleton had been withdrawn.
This is great news for the local patients.
SODS
Save our dispensing surgeries and Leuchars Community Council published a joint statement on 17th of July 2010.
They say "Despite considerable concern by the public, MSPs and MPs of all parties, the unsatisfactory legislation is still being used to determine such (pharmacy) applications. So far the Scottish Government has, quite unreasonably and irrationally, resisted all requests to instruct a suspension of pharmacy applications in rural areas until new legislation is brought in."
They then publish an email that I received from Mr Semple of TLC Pharmacy, in March 2010. You may wish to read the article and the email, which speaks for itself.
Fife
The Dundee Courier is reporting that Leuchars Community Council and SODS are submitting a report to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman expressing dissatisfaction at how Fife Health Board and the Scottish government has handled the recent pharmacy application.
The story goes onto say that patient services in Leuchars are now at risk from the loss of dispensing and that 70 of the 128 dispensing practices are at threat from a (predatory) pharmacy application.
All Scottish dispensing doctors should be making an assessment of their level of risk. The DDA can help with advice on this matter as does my practice director, Brian Austen.
Cumbrae
Pharmacists sick of island campaign is the headline in the Largs and Millport News. link
Mr Semple of TLC Pharmacy who has made an application in Millport complains that a well orchestrated campaign is preventing him and other pharmacists of competing with the island GPs, who he describes them as having a vested interest and their behaviour as disgraceful.
Mr Semple describes these campaigns as orchestrated, the DDA would take the view that these are separate rural communities trying to protect their patient services against regulations that favour the commercial interests of pharmacists. Last year the minister in a debate in the Scottish Parliament accepted the reality of the cross subsidy of medical services by dispensing.
Aberdeenshire
Plan for new pharmacy casts doubt over future of surgery says the Press and Journal, which
Highlights the overwhelming opposition to the Tarves pharmacy, which TLC Pharmacy obtained on appeal. The surgery is quoted as saying that it was dispensing that allowed them to support two branch surgeries and services. The article suggests that the future of some patient services are now in the balance.
Tell DDA Online if there is a dispensing doctor story in your local newspaper. We expect to see more in the coming weeks.