Holly Tree Dispensary
Needs YOUR help

A planning application for a pharmacy in Rowledge has been submitted. The company from Manchester has submitted approximately 400 similar applications around the country. If the application is successful, the business model would be sold on, rather than specifically wanting to open the stores himself. This will mean the end of our being able to offer dispensing services to our patients as we are unable to dispense to anyone who lives within 1.6 km of a pharmacy. The impact of this would take various forms some of which are listed below.

How can YOU help?

By writing to the name at the bottom of this information sheet quoting the reference: AP09/Jan08

Below are some ideas you may wish to include in your letter. The more public support we can get the greater chance of us winning. If you really can’t write on our behalf then we hope you will sign the petition at reception.

• Convenience. Dispensing at the surgery enables approximately 75% of our patients to walk away with any prescription immediately after a consultation with a doctor. Treatment begins immediately for all of them. Many patients are without transport; buses are occasional and irregular. A visit to an off-site chemist would be a nuisance at best, and a major inconvenience for many, with cost implications for everyone.

• Opening hours. Holly Tree’s dispensary remains open until the end of each day’s surgery enabling prescriptions to be taken the same day. The Rowledge application mentions 6pm closing. Every evening, patients would either have to wait for their treatment or drive over 3 miles to the nearest dispensing supermarket.

• Outreach Every Wednesday, outreach surgeries are held in two local villages, Kingsley and Binsted. The majority of patients attending could be categorised as ‘vulnerable’, and without ready access to transport. Doctors from Holly Tree Surgery not only run the surgeries, but also dispense and deliver drugs in person to those patients requiring repeat prescriptions. The loss of Holly Tree’s dispensary would severely undermine these outreach surgeries and would make them unsustainable.

• Financial impact. Effective management of a dispensing practice has enabled additional services to be provided at Holly Tree Surgery, subsidised by the dispensary income, for the benefit of staff and patients. At the same time as achieving amongst the highest scores nationally for quality of care of patients with chronic diseases combined with restraint on drug prescribing, the practice has managed to fund a complete rebuild of the surgery, providing modern and attractive facilities. It has also supported the employment of an additional doctor enhancing choice, and the provision of a new consulting room and patient room. A commercial pharmacy in the village would not make a similar contribution to patient welfare.

• Destabilisation. Local village shops struggle to survive; many have closed and a number of them have turned to a mixture of volunteers and a few paid staff as the only way to continue trading. Stability is provided for our dispensary, coming within the overall practice, and sharing costs. It is our understanding that the opening of a pharmacy in Rowledge would require the revoking of the Holly Tree Surgery dispensary rights. If this pharmacy were then to fail patients would be left with no local dispensing facilities whatsoever. Space would have been reallocated and the five current part-time dispensers would no longer be employed.

Please write to:

Mrs Angela Ruske,

Pharmaceutical Administrator,
Primary Care Support Service,
187 Ewell Road,
Surbiton,
Surrey KT6 6AU
Ref: APO9/Jan 08