A NEW pharmacy could move in to Wellington after GPs received an inquiry from a company interested in taking over a former Boots outlet.
Boots closed its pharmacy unit in February this year on the Wellington Medical Centre (WMC) site in Mantle Street.
The closure resulted in chaos for the remaining three Wellington pharmacies, all located a third-of-a-mile away in the town centre, as patients complained of long queues to collect prescriptions.
Now, the medical centre has received an inquiry about re-establishing a pharmacy in the empty premises.
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At the same time the medical centre’s patients participation group (PPG) is asking people to write to NHS Somerset to explain their experiences since the February Boots closure.
PPG chairman Veronica Tatnall said: “Collecting the experiences of patients from WMC and other patients in the town would provide a list of the services/issues patients would like to see maintained, improved, or new services added, and would support an application to restore a pharmacy service at the medical centre.
“It is now felt the time is right to ask the people of Wellington to make known their ‘pharmacy use experience’ in the time since the pharmacy at WMC closed and their ability to obtain access to medication on an ongoing basis.
“It would also allow the medical centre to tick off one item on the list of Health Minister Wes Streeting, that it would again become a ‘one stop’ health contact point requiring one visit to see a GP and obtain any prescribed medication.”
Mrs Tatnall said people should email [email protected] entering ‘Pharmacy’ in the subject section or write to WMC with ‘Pharmacy’ on the envelope.
She said: “Please note if emailing, there will be no replies to any medical issues, these must be done through the usual channels.”
The PPG previously wrote to NHS Somerset in December of last year, before the pharmacy closure, to raise concerns on behalf of patients about the Boots decision.
The letter outlined several issues and concerns the PPG believed would result from the decision and the potential impact on remaining pharmacies as patients transferred their pharmacy use.