Stocksbridge protest at “shocking” lack of pharmacy cover – patients waiting a week for prescriptions

Kathryn Giles-Bowman, who runs Oceanic Beauty Salon on Manchester Road, launched an online petition (https://chng.it/kryv4KVJPK) to campaign for better pharmacy coverage in Stocksbridge and Deepcar after customers told her of the problems they face.

These include a lack of pharmacists to dispense prescriptions, leading to a wait of up to seven days, and almost no local weekend coverage. The situation got so bad for her elderly and more vulnerable customers that the beautician had considered driving people to Boots at Meadowhall, she told a meeting of Sheffield health and wellbeing board yesterday, Thursday (December 7).

“I shouldn’t have to do that but I was willing to do that because the provision isn’t there,” she said.

The board, made up of Sheffield City Council members and officials and NHS representatives, agreed to set up a meeting with Ms Giles-Bowman and other concerned locals to discuss what might be done.

However, Sheffield City Council director of public health, Greg Fell, said that his staff are unable to undertake extra pharmacy service reviews because they are already overstretched.

Vulnerable

Ms Giles-Bowman said that online and paper petitions have been signed by 182 people. She said that Stocksbridge and Deepcar have a population of 14,000 people, a quarter of who are over 65 in a hilly area at the edge of Sheffield that makes it more difficult for vulnerable people to access services.

She said there are three pharmacies locally but the nearest 24-hour service is at the Wicker Pharmacy 9.7 miles away. It is not served by a local bus service and a taxi trip there and back would cost around £40.

One local pharmacy opens on Saturdays from 9am-noon but not every weekend.

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She said: “Somebody who is older, more vulnerable, has no family, has no transport doesn’t have the availability to get the prescriptions that they need.”

She said that one pharmacy attached to a Deepcar GP surgery often will not open until 10am, leaving people with a long wait after earlier doctor’s appointments. Another makes people wait their turn outside in the street.

Ms Giles-Bowman said that people were better served during the pandemic because extra provision was put in place to help vulnerable patients.

Shocking

Board chair Dr Zak McMurray read from a written response that said services are regularly reviewed and there had been no recent complaints from GPs or patients in Stocksbridge or Deepcar. There had also been no notice that pharmacies had changed opening hours.

GP Dr Leigh Sorsbie said: “On the one hand we’ve heard shocking stories, on the other hand we’ve got a response going ‘everything seems to suggest that it’s well’. It’s that gap that’s where the problems fall.

“If you’re saying there’s no pharmacy provision at the weekend, I’m thinking as a GP where do the ill people go who would normally consult at a pharmacy? That’s going to hit the more expensive medical world or A&E, so as a system it’s not working.”

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She added: “I also want to just recognise that you run a hairdressing salon and here you are up to your eyes in health and wellbeing. This is part of all the health and wellbeing stuff that goes on in the community.”

Dr Sorsbie said it was important to recognise Ms Giles-Bowman’s “amazing work” supporting her community.

Coun Douglas Johnson said that councillors hear similar stories about gaps in pharmacy provision from other parts of the city.

He said it was important to pinpoint what parts of the problem lie at a national policy level and what parts local services can have some influence over.

Mr Fell said that a pharmacy review was last published in 2022 and the next one is due in 2025.

He added: “I will be brutal here – my team don’t have the capacity to refresh the pharmacy needs assessment. It’s a problem we can’t totally resolve.”