An independent pharmacist is fighting to open a pharmacy in Wallingford despite Boots, whose branch there is the only pharmacy in the South Oxfordshire town, raising objections to the opening of a new pharmacy. 

Chaudhry Abbas said the closure of a LloydsPharmacy branch on Market Place resulted in its patients being transferred to the Boots pharmacy which he claimed has put the branch under “intense pressure” as the only remaining pharmacy in the area.

“Boots is overwhelmed with the demand of the local residents resulting in unacceptable waiting time for prescriptions and medicine,” he told the Oxford Mail. In an attempt to bolster his case for a new pharmacy, Abbas launched a survey to collect patient data on the provision of pharmacy services in Wallingford.

However, Boots raised objections with NHS England to Abbas’ application to open a pharmacy, and a spokesperson for the multiple told Independent Community Pharmacist its branch was meeting the community’s health needs.

When asked to respond to Abbas’ claim that Boots wanted to “maintain the monopoly” in the town, the spokesperson said: “As with all new pharmacy contract applications, NHS England invites the view of other local providers as part of the consultation process. We believe that our store in Market Place serves the community well and we are confident that we can continue to meet local demand for pharmacy provision, delivering services and prescriptions to our patients.”

The Oxford Mail said it obtained a letter from Boots in which the multiple said the closure of a pharmacy in an area “does not automatically create a gap.” In the letter, Boots said it “respectfully” urged “the integrated care board to refuse” Abbas’ application. Boots has been contacted to comment on the letter.

When asked if a decision on Abbas’ application had been made, and if so, what decision had been reached, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care System did not respond. Oxfordshire County Council’s health and wellbeing board and NHS England have also been contacted for comment.

The Oxford Mail also published excerpts from a letter by Wallingford town councillor Katharine Keats-Rohan who voiced her support for a second pharmacy in the town.

Insisting Wallingford “has an elderly population which is greater than the national average”, she said: “The inability to access adequate pharmacy services is already causing a great deal of anguish and upset in the town.”