The owners of a local pharmacy operator have bought a pharmacy in Barnsley where they used to work as locums having decided “they can grow patient numbers and expand the service offering,” according to Christie and Co who brokered the deal.

The owners of Livesey Healthcare Ltd, which has another pharmacy in East Lancashire, completed a deal for an undisclosed fee to buy the 100-hour Stone Pharmacy which dispenses an average of 22,000 items a month. It is next to Garland House surgery in the South Yorkshire village of Darfield.

Stone Pharmacy was owned by Khuram Akhtar and Mohammed Ali, trading as MEDS2U Ltd, for seven years. Christie and Co said the pair decided to sell so they can “pursue new ventures both in and out of community pharmacy.”

Jon Booth, director-pharmacy at Christie & Co who handled the sale, said: “With the recent announcement of changes to the 100-hours contract, we anticipate the market for former 100-hours contracts will gain further momentum.”