The fight for a third Totnes pharmacy goes to the top.

Doctors from both Totnes surgeries have joined an impassioned plea to Government for a third pharmacy in the town. They say patients are being harmed because the two current chemists are
“overwhelmed”. And there are warnings that this will have “wide ranging consequences”.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting is being asked to overturn a decision by an NHS body which stopped the opening of a pharmacy at Leatside to replace Boots, which shut its branch in January 2024.
Doctors at Leatside have added their voice to the campaign being run by the patients’ group there.

In a letter being sent to Streeting, they say: “Since the closure of the previous pharmacy located within our premises, we have received a significant volume of feedback from our patients expressing frustration, inconvenience, and in some cases distress, due to the resulting delays in accessing their prescribed medication. For many, the lack of a co-located pharmacy has created an additional and unnecessary burden.”

As the Pulse has reported, patients complain of waiting a long time in a queue for drugs; drugs not being available and having to go to other towns to get them. This, say the Leatside GPs, has in some instances resulted in “avoidable harm.”

GPs at Catherine House surgery have also written with their “unequivocal support” for a pharmacy at Leatside. Lead clinical GP partner Dr James Cooper says: “The remaining two pharmacies in Totnes have been overwhelmed…. Rarely does a day go by without a patient voicing their frustration to me.” He adds that it is “difficult to understand” why another pharmacy should be prevented from opening. It is a decision which has perplexed campaigners leading the call to the Health Secretary to urgently overturn the decision. It is a decision in which the 19,000 patients signed on with the two surgeries have been barred from having their say – so far.

Mike Mintrum, chair of the Leatside patients’ group, has laid out the saga of why a Devon company, PharmaDerma, was at first allowed – and then stopped – from opening here. (see Pulse story here)

In the submission to Streeting – which is being supported by MP Caroline Voaden – Mr Mintrum says the decision by NHS Resolution to uphold Well Pharmacy’s objection to a competitor “stands in stark opposition to both demonstrable community need and the clearly expressed wishes of patients and residents.”

“The removal of this vital health care service will have wide ranging consequences for the health and wellbeing of the population of Totnes, particularly its most vulnerable members.”

It is all the more perplexing because the Devon Integrated Care Board had said YES to PhamaDerma opening up at Leatside – only for the Leeds- based NHS Resolution to come down on the side of Well’s appeal. Mr Mintrum points out that Totnes and surrounding villages have grown considerably in the last decade, and at a time when Government wants more people to access pharmacists before GPs and A and E departments, the decision will have the opposite effect. “Both the existing pharmacies are unable to offer the full range of Pharmacy First treatments and therefore do not reduce the workload of GPs, as the Government intended.”
He adds that staff shortages, even short term, have exposed “a critical vulnerability” in the system, which not only disrupts care for people who need regular medication, but also increases anxiety, particularly among the most vulnerable.

The submission also says that the appeal by the Well parent group, Bestway Pharmacy, lacks substantive evidence that two pharmacies are enough. “Far from the picture of seamless access described in the appeal, elderly, frail and disabled residents have repeatedly encountered ongoing difficulties in travelling from the Leatside surgery to either Morrisons or Well.”

Well in the main street has steps up to it and is closed on Saturdays; Morrisons shuts at lunchtimes.

The detailed submission to the Health Secretary should be on his desk soon. Patients in Totnes and around will be hoping he makes a decision – FOR a third pharmacy – quickly.