Villagers have launched a battle to save their chemist’s shop which is threatened with closure because doctors have been given permission to dispense drugs from a nearby surgery.
An emergency meeting of Newick Parish Council was told on Tuesday night that loss of business could mean closure of the chemist’s and the loss of home deliveries of medicines that many depend on.
The parish council also fears closure would threaten the existence of neighbouring traders, a baker, a butcher, a corner shop and an estate agent.
‘The chemist is part of a cluster of shops vital to the village and the loss of one would affect the others. We must win this fight,’ said parish council chairman Cllr Chris Jago.
He said the decision to allow the Chailey doctors’ surgery to dispense drugs to anyone living outside Newick was made without local consultation or any effort to ensure that doctors and chemist could work together. It was imperative to react quickly because the deadline for an appeal against the decision was May 28.
‘It appears that only the chemist has a right of appeal and we think this is ridiculous. The authorities have deprived us of both consultation and the ability to appeal. We are taking professional advice on how to proceed,’ said Cllr Jago.
Leaflets are being distributed urging villagers to sign petitions which can be found in village shops and which will be presented to the East Sussex, Downs and Weald Primary Care Trust. Local MP Norman Baker has been contacted and Baroness Cumberlege, a former health minister, who lives in Newick has tabled questions in the House of Lords.
Cllr Jago stressed other villages would also be hard hit by closure of the chemist’s because it also carried out home deliveries of medicines in Plumpton, Wivelsfield Green, Fletching, Maresfield and Barcombe as well as Chailey and Newick.
Villagers would lose the ability to buy non-prescription items from the chemist and be unable to seek quick advice from Sally, the local pharmacist, on minor medical matters so making it unnecessary for them to make an appointment to see a doctor.
More information and the ability to sign a petition on-line can be found on the village website: www.newick.net.

 

 

The Parish Council has recently discovered that last November, Newick Health Centre (NHC) applied to East Sussex, Downs & Weald Primary Care Trust for permission to dispense prescription drugs at their Chailey Surgery to anyone within NHC's catchment area except the centre of Newick itself - a total of 340 post codes in all. Permission was granted on 30th April, subject to Appeal, the closing date of which is 30th May. Neither Chailey or Newick Parish Councils (or indeed, the Friends of Newick Health Centre) were advised of this proposal.

The proposal gives us very great concern as over half of the prescription business of our Chemist in Newick is to patients living outside the Newick post codes and could potentially seriously impact on the viability of the shop. Indeed, on the basis that the Health Centre expects to make sufficient profit from the operation to make it worth their while, it appears extremely likely that this will largely be at our chemist’s expense.

On 6th May, Council representatives met the Health Centre Practice Manager, who didn’t know what impact the transfer of business from our chemist would have on their profitability but said that as they were a large national company, there was little if any risk they would abandon Newick. With memories that Barclays Bank did just that not so many years ago, we do not feel the village can be complacent about the possibility. Needless to say, the loss of the chemist in Newick would inevitably have a serious impact on the business of the other shops in the village.

Ironically, the proposal, if implemented, could impact on the people of Chailey first. Lloyds currently undertake a free delivery service of prescription drugs to all villages around Newick which they do without charge (and at a loss to themselves). Over 1500 prescription items are dispensed in this way each month. We are told this may be the first to be abandoned if they lose the core business. Whilst the Surgery may take over this business, it again hits the profitability of our chemist badly.

The Contractor Services Administration Manager at the PCT apologised for not including us in the Consultation process but said the decision had been made in Accordance with the NHS Pharmaceutical Regulations 2005 and we could not lodge an Appeal against it. He claimed that Section 233 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 which lays down the duty to involve users of health services did not apply to this process so we have written to Norman Baker MP to see if he can help. Baroness Cumberlege is also giving us a lot of support including tabling a couple of questions in Parliament.

Time for appealing is now very short and notwithstanding the assertion that the people of Newick cannot appeal against a decision that could seriously affect us all, the Council has organised a Petition to send to the Appeal Unit in Harrogate. Copies are available around the village in all the shops or you can sign on this web-site. If you share our concern, please sign by Wednesday 28th May. In addition, if you want to write personally to protest about the process and decision, please do so to:

FHS Appeal Unit
30 Victoria Avenue
Harrogate
HG1 5PR

Thank you for taking the trouble to read this brief.

Chris Jago
Chairman, Newick Parish Council