Bid for second pharmacy in Fife town to go before health committee

The proposals are resurfacing after a health board committee refused an application for a second outlet last year. It subsequently won an appeal.

According to Burntisland Community Council, and Fife councillor Julie MacDougall (Labour), the town's only pharmacy, a single Lloyds outlet on High Street, is not enough for the community,

The community body wrote to NHS Fife stating: “Our one and only local pharmacy has reported backlogs on several occasions of over 800 prescriptions. The turnaround time is typically two days as opposed to 15 minutes elsewhere, opening hours have been reduced; and patients have been advised that prescriptions can no longer be sent directly from the surgery to that pharmacy. By any standards that is an appalling state of affairs.”

Cllr MacDougall said the town has long needed a second pharmacy.

“The situation now with Lloyds is that some of these places are being bought over and it has created an even greater need for another pharmacy. It’s exacerbated the situation in town more so than it already was,” she said.

Since the proposals won an appeal last August, the community council said “there appears to have been no action whatsoever by NHS Fife.”

However, the health authority said it has been working behind the scenes to revamp the committee which will oversee the review.

NHS Fife issued a statement in response to community council concerns:

“A further stipulation from the National Appeals Panel was that the members of the Pharmacy Practices Committee (PPC) could no longer be constituted by members of the Area Pharmaceutical Committee (APC) who would have had prior experience and knowledge in sitting on these hearings. This has required fundamental change to the constitution of Pharmacy Practice Committees across Scotland.”

The statement continued: “To bring together this new Pharmacy Practices Committee, NHS Fife has had to work through a number of steps. We have now appointed members from outwith the APC to sit on these hearings. A training date is proposed for the beginning of May. I would expect a hearing being convened to consider the Burntisland application at the end of June/July.”