By Neil Trainis

Originally published by Independent Community Pharmacist

LloydsPharmacy has disappeared from the UK’s high streets after its parent company confirmed today that all of its branches have been sold.

Hallo Healthcare Group told Independent Community Pharmacist it has sold its 1,054 high street and community pharmacies, with more than 6,500 employees securing employment with new owners.

Hallo Healthcare said LloydsPharmacy branches were bought by independent pharmacy owners and “local entrepreneurs” and insisted their sales will ensure “99 per cent of pharmacies will stay open and central” to more than 1,000 communities.

Hallo Healthcare also said it will continue running four other parts of the business which will operate “independently of each other.” Those include the wholesaler AAH Pharmaceuticals, LloydsPharmacy Healthcare Services, which serves NHS hospitals, prisons, community health trusts and the private sector, LloydsPharmacy Clinical Homecare and LloydsPharmacy Online Doctor.

“Hallo Healthcare Group is pleased to have successfully sold its LloydsPharmacy high street and community branches.  The main priority has always been to keep pharmacies open and central to their communities, whilst ensuring ongoing employment for colleagues,” a spokesperson for the Group said.

“Hallo Healthcare Group remains fully committed to the UK healthcare sector with teams across the Group continuing to serve patients and customers through its network of specialist pharmacies, online doctor services and clinical homecare. Whilst it may have left the high street, the LloydsPharmacy brand name and heritage remains in specialist pharmacy, clinical and digital healthcare.”

Hallo Healthcare Group is owned by the private investment group Aurelius who it emerged last month were in talks to buy the Body Shop.

LloydsPharmacy's exit from market 'very concerning' 

The chief executive of the Company Chemists’ Association Malcolm Harrison said it was "obviously very concerning that the owner of such a large organisation has chosen to exit the community pharmacy market."

Insisting LloydsPharmacy's disappearance from the high street "must serve as a wake-up call to the government and NHS," he said: "Since 2015, core funding has been cut in real terms by 30 per cent and there has been a net loss of more than 1,000 pharmacies. This calendar year alone, there has been a net loss of 299 pharmacies. All the while, workload associated with NHS services has risen inexorably."

Harrison warned ministers the £645 million in new money as part of the primary care recovery plan "will not address the underlying fragility in the market, nor will it be able to make up for almost a decade of underfunding."

"Choosing not to properly fund pharmacies to supply NHS medicines is a false economy. Pharmacies currently supply over 1 billion NHS medicines each year to patients. Access to medicines and other critical primary care services will continue to deteriorate as more and more pharmacies close," he said.