Pharmacies

In March this year we asked members of the public to 'Tell us your experiences of accessing and using your local pharmacy'. This coincided with the stakeholder consultation taking place around proposed changes to community pharmacies and the campaign by the National Pharmacy Association to support local pharmacies.

You responded, overwhelmingly in support of your local pharmacy, praising the service they provide. These comments were used to inform a Healthwatch Shropshire response to the Department of Health's consultation paper . We voiced the public's concerns about plans to 'go digital' as unrealistic in a county with very poor broadband. We also voiced your concerns about issues of rurality, in particular poor transport links to many villages and the necessity of keeping a collection and delivery service , particularly for those with limited mobility and/or limited or no access to public transport. We voiced the many positive comments we had received. In particular the fact that we currently have a good rural provision of pharmacies who link effectively with local GPs and, in the case of some rural villages, 'fill the gap' created by having no GP practice.

Healthwatch Shropshire also sent letters, outlining our response, to Daniel Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury & Atcham, Philip Dunne, MP for Ludlow and Mark Pritchard, MP for the Wrekin.