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Community pharmacy application questionnaire from the health board.

The health board have now written to every household in North Uist and Benbecula asking for feedback regarding this pharmacy application.

I am hearing from a lot of patients concerns about how clear the wording is in this letter, and many are finding it difficult to know how to answer the questions either for themselves, or when helping elderly relatives.

It is important that you record your own experiences – but I hope I can clarify some of the questions for you and provide some guidance (if needed), as to how you can best make an impact if you feel that a pharmacy in Benbecula would not be desirable.

1 ‘Do the boundaries of the area within which the pharmacy premises are situated constitute an appropriate neighbourhood?’

The neighbourhood is the area that the pharmacy will provide prescriptions for.  It has been defined as the ‘Isles of North Uist and Benbecula’. 

It would be helpful to query whether this is an adequate description given that technically it doesn’t mention Baleshare, Grimsay or Berneray – are these places included?  If not – why not, and what will happen to them?

This is also the section where it would be very helpful to outline in detail what the changes will mean for you personally regarding getting access to services.  At present you can get your pills from Lochmaddy, Carinish, Bayhead or Berneray.

• How many extra miles will you need to drive to get medication from Balivanich?
• How much would this cost?
• Would you need to use public transport – if so how adequate is it?

2 ‘Is the current provision of NHS pharmaceutical Services within the neighbourhood adequate?’

This is a bit of a trick question and I am disappointed that the health board have not explained what is meant here,

The services you currently get in North Uist don’t count as ‘pharmaceutical services’ because these are defined as only being available from pharmacists. 

As well as giving you pills, these services include… nicotine patches for smokers, reviewing your medication a few times a year, supplying contraception, and dealing with minor illnesses.

I hope you would agree that these are done already for you by the practice.  If so – then it would be helpful to put in this section that although you don’t have access to a local pharmacist, you would prefer to keep getting these kinds of services from your GP.  You could also mention if you regularly get things from local shops, online, or from relatives when you want to get pharmaceutical supplies and don’t find this inconvenient.   

3. ‘If the current provision is not adequate will the application secure an adequate provision of services in the neighbourhood.’

They are asking here how good a service you would expect to get from the pharmacy if it opened.

You might like to comment that the area covered is so large (over 400 km²) that there are concerns at how viable it will be for them to provide a delivery service.  You may also have concerns at the security or size of the proposed shop in Balivanich (in the area of the current sports shop).

You may be worried at what might happen if the business opens but then closes after a few months / years if they don’t make enough money.  How would we cope then?

It  would also be useful to think about how adequate a service this would be in certain situations.  For example – if you see a doctor at 5:30 in Lochmaddy and are given a prescription… how are you going to get it that day? 

‘Please enter any other comments in the space below.’

This would be the place to mention how the loss of local doctors / practice staff might be of concern to you.  There are potential issues with finding it harder to get routine appointments, the knock on effects that loss of staff will have for running out of hours care / the hospital, the social impact of people losing jobs in a remote community, the increased costs and inconvenience that people will face from having to travel so far for services, the environmental impact that this might have.  Etc.

At the end of the day it is an opportunity for you to make any of your feelings known – but if you want to make an impact you need to focus on the subjects I have outlined above. These are the topics within which the legislation gives us some room to manoeuvre if enough people raise them as concerns.

It is very important that you put pen to paper and send these letters to the health board.  If we are to argue that a pharmacy is not necessary or desirable here we need the weight of public opinion behind us.