Save your community pharmacy - sign the petition!

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Dear valued customer,

Your local pharmacy is at risk of closure.

Back in December 2015, the Department of Health announced plans to cut community pharmacy funding by £170m in 2016/17, this equates to as many as a quarter of all UK bricks and mortar pharmacies.

Local pharmacies are a drastically underused resource in this country, which makes them an easy target for Government cuts. But, if you value your local pharmacy, now is the time to make your voice heard.

Pharmacists are extremely knowledgeable when it comes to identifying and treating minor illnesses, as well as advising on chronic health conditions. We can provide emergency contraception, advise (and intervene) on medication, offer counsel, administer first aid, communicate with hospitals and GPs on behalf of patients, deliver medication to housebound patients and arrange for prescriptions to be collected from surgeries – all in a day’s work.

We all need to support our local pharmacies by demonstrating that we would prefer to walk in, for on the spot treatment of minor ailments, rather than wait in line for an appointment to be seen by an NHS, which is already bursting at the seams.

Instead of closing pharmacies down, the Government should be lending its support in order to help pharmacies to realise their full potential: as the first line of defense in preventative healthcare.

Reducing this invaluable resource may save the Government a few pounds in the short term, but the real question should be: long-term is it worth the cost?

We urge you to show your support by signing the petition:

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/116943

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Gale

Chief pharmacist, owner and manager of the Frost Pharmacy Group