How can pharmacists take up the extra workload of advising patients when their numbers are being drastically reduced? - Yorkshire Post Letters

I have been dismayed to learn of the proposed closure of the small Boots Pharmacy in Chapel Street, Thirsk, North Yorkshire in early April.

This is a much loved, convenient and well used pharmacy for patients (from both the GP surgeries on Chapel Street) many of them elderly like myself and my wife but often much less fit and able.

The staff there demonstrate the very best values of caring and efficiency in a very well run pharmacy. Nothing is too much trouble and the fact that the GP surgeries are all just a few yards away on the same street, helps the GP staff also.

There are alternatives in the town but not as convenient for the elderly and infirm and those with no transport

Moreover, this is at a time when the Government is desperately trying to find ways to reduce the pressure on GPs and A&E departments by encouraging greater use of Pharmacists for advice to patients.

I note in your paper recently that Lloyds Pharmacies are closing over 200 of their pharmacies as are many, small privately run pharmacists across the country because of supply chain problems and the payments for dispensing prescriptions are simply not keeping pace with current cost increases faced by these concerns.

It speaks of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing at the Department of Health. How can pharmacists take up the extra workload of advising patients when their numbers are being drastically reduced by this Government's short-sighted approach?