Victory: a new pharmacy finally approved in Hampton!
Healthwatch Richmond is also proud to have been actively campaigning for a year for the resolution of the pharmacy issue in Hampton!
After a year of campaigning for the opening of a new pharmacy in Hampton, an application has finally been approved.
In autumn 2023, two Boots pharmacies closed in Hampton. This has led local residents not being able to access essential pharmacy services. To understand what happened we need to go back a little bit.
- August 2023: Boots informed NHS England (NHSE) that 2 of their pharmacies in Hampton were about to close, but NHSE did not pass this on to the local NHS or Council. There is a mandatory three months’ notice period for pharmacy closures.
As a consequence, an updated Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) was published which did not account for the upcoming closures. It therefore incorrectly concluded that no new pharmacies were needed in Hampton.
- October 2023: Tangley Park Pharmacy closed.
- November 2023: Priority Road Pharmacy closed.
16th November: A new pharmacy application was submitted to NHSE. This application was correct for the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) in place at the time.
- December 2023: On 1st December, the HWB published a supplementary statement expressing the need for a new pharmacy in Hampton. The new applicant was not notified of this document and so could not amend their application accordingly.
- January 2024: Healthwatch Richmond formally published their Pharmacy Review with clear evidence of a lack of pharmacy provision in Hampton. The report reviews over 700 residents’ feedback and experiences about the situation and finds substantial unmet needs.
More than 2 months after the submission, the HWB was advised of the new pharmacy application. The HWB responded with evidence positively supporting applications to open pharmacies in the area.
- July 2024: On 7th July, the application was rejected by the Market Entry Team, hosted by North East London Integrated Care Board. The reason cited was the supplementary statement published in December 2023.
26th July 2024: MP Munira Wilson highlighted this issue in Parliament. She has supported Healthwatch Richmond in campaigning for a resolution to this intolerable situation from the start.
During the parliamentary session she described the pharmacy rejection process as "perverse". She underlined that:
"it is also utterly unreasonable that timely applications to open pharmacies in response to multiple closures should be inherently prevented in this way. The delays in sharing information with the local health and wellbeing board and the delays in decision making are unforgivable."
Following Munira Wilson's statement, Andrew Gwynne, Under-Secretary for the Department of Health and Social Care, addressed the situation:
"I instructed officials to ask her ICB to consider her concerns again. I hear that she has had a reply that was not particularly helpful. Again, I hope that her ICB is watching this debate, and listening to her case and to me as the Minister saying from the Dispatch Box that we take these issues seriously."
Case Study:
Gill, 87, lives in Hampton. She takes several prescriptions, and before her local pharmacy closed, she used this service regularly.
There used to be a (Boots) pharmacy very close to her home. The service was next to a supermarket with ample parking, which made it even more convenient and accessible. It was always busy, and many people in the local area relied on it.
“There was always a queue,” Gill explained. “I can’t walk very well, but I could always get there though as it was just across the road from my house.”
However, this pharmacy shut suddenly in autumn 2023. Gill doesn’t recall seeing any advance notice of the closure, and she is frustrated by the decision to shut down the service.
“The company passed their financial problems on to us,” Gill says. “It wouldn’t matter as much if another company opened a pharmacy on the site, but instead it seems they’re turning it into a fish and chips shop!”
Now, the nearest pharmacy branch is over a mile away, and Gill (who doesn’t drive) can’t access this service due to the distance she’d have to walk to get there. She even paid the pharmacy to deliver her medicines to her home each month. However, in the eight months since she purchased the delivery service, they’ve only shown up twice. Her carer has to travel into town to collect the medication in person.
“I find the current situation of chemist loss in Hampton quite difficult to cope with. It is totally frustrating and a most difficult situation.”
- 1st Pharmacy Application : 16th November 2023. Regulations require applications to be determined within 4 months.
- Rejection: 7th July 2024, rejected by the Market Entry Team, hosted by North East London Integrated Care Board (NEL ICB), due to a technicality that should have been apparent months earlier.
- Appeal: 16th July 2024
- 2nd Application: 25th June 2024
- Appeal rejected: 4th October
- Decision to accept 2nd application: 18 October 2024
"Our pharmacies play a vital role in the community - dispensing medicines, offering free advice and promoting good health. The lengthy delay in deciding on the 2023 Tangley Park (Hampton North) pharmacy application is unacceptable and frustrating for our residents and our community deserves much timelier decision making to ensure they have access to these essential services. It's crucial that future applications are handled efficiently to avoid further inconvenience and support the wellbeing of our residents." - Councillor Piers Allen, Chair of the Adult Social Services, Health and Housing Services Committee for Richmond Council and Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board
We requested that decision-makers commit to processing new applications quickly to address Hampton's urgent community needs. Unfortunately, their response failed to answer our questions - breaching their statutory duty to respond to a Healthwatch. They also declined to take any action to ensure that future applications are dealt with more swiftly and sensibly, despite the intervention of ourselves, Munira Wilson MP and the Minister.
You can find our Letter of Concern on the link below.
“After a year of campaigning for Hampton residents, we are delighted to announce that they will now have access to the pharmacy services that they need. Over that year we’ve heard from over 700 local residents and seen first hand how the lack of pharmacy services in Hampton has impacted them.
We’ve also been putting pressure on the decision makers through making formal requests, supporting Munira Wilson MP’s parliamentary debate and working with local decision makers to hold them to account and encourage them to listen to the needs of our community.
It will still be some time before the new Pharmacy is ready to open to the public, but the end is now in sight and this is a huge win for the people of Hampton.
Our work does not stop here however. The system for deciding pharmacy applications is unnecessarily bureaucratic and led to perverse decisions and ultimately avoidable and extensive delays for our residents. Our next job is to ensure that lessons are learnt from this so that other areas do not face the same delays.”
- Mike Derry Chief Officer, Healthwatch Richmond
Since the emergence of this major healthcare access issue, Healthwatch Richmond have tirelessly campaigned for the opening of a new pharmacy in Hampton. We have conducted extensive research, hearing from one in six households in Hampton North and published a thorough report demonstrating the hugely detrimental impact of the pharmacy closures on the population.
We were incredibly grateful to Munira Wilson MP who supported us in campaigning for a resolution to this intolerable situation through questions in Parliament and the Friday 26th July Adjournment Debate.
We also would like to express gratitude for the support of local NHS (South West London Integrated Care Board) and Local Authority colleagues in seeing this matter resolved.
Today we are delighted that our hard work paid off and that the voice of Hampton residents was heard. This is a victory for healthcare in our community.
We will continue to actively campaign to champion NHS and social care services improvement!
It's brilliant news that this application has been approved, which is a key step towards opening new pharmacy services for Hampton residents. We fully support the need for local pharmacy services and understand the frustrations with the process so far - we are working in partnership with NHS colleagues across London to make improvements.
