A CHANGE in the law is urgently required if communities such as Newcastleton are to be spared the threat of losing key services delivered by local GP practices which also dispense medicines.
That is the view of Malcolm McGregor, chairman of the action group set up in April to fight a bid by a private company for a licence to operate a pharmacy at 4 North Hermitage Street, currently the Copshaw Kitchen, a stone's throw from the hea
lth centre at Moss Road.
When Unicare Pharmacy submitted its bid to NHS Borders, 537 people objected and last week, the bid was withdrawn before the health authority's pharmacy practices committee (PPC) sat down in private to consider it.
The campaign to thwart the Unicare challenge was launched because the Newcastleton surgery depends on dispensing for half its income and losing this would have resulted in the loss of at least one of the three GPs, along with ancillary staff and a range of services.
In May, Scottish Borders Council urged health minister Nicola Sturgeon to allow speculative private pharmacy bids to be rejected at an early stage.
The Scottish Government is due to announce proposed changes after the summer break. Mr McGregor said amendments could not come soon enough.
He told TheSouthern: "We need to ensure the grief and uncertainty endured in Newcastleton is not repeated here or elsewhere. It was a surprise to find out that registered pharmacies and their companies can make multiple applications throughout Scotland and it does not cost them a penny to do so, in contrast to England where a £700 charge is made for each application.
"It was more of a surprise to learn that a company can submit an application without having to provide a health authority with evidence that it either owns, or has even placed a conditional offer to buy, the property from which it intends running its business. Although regulations require a pharmacy to be opened within six months of a licence being granted, there is nothing to stop that licence being put up for sale to the highest bidder.
"What is even more disturbing is that if a pharmacy bid is successful in a Scottish rural area then, within six months, the medical practice must cease dispensing. Why not allow the medical practice to continue dispensing and let patients decide where they go for their prescriptions?"
