Pharmacy’s service criticised as queues build up
ASH Vale residents have been left furious by several days of long queues at a local pharmacy, with some being turned away emptyhanded despite waiting in line for hours to collect vital medication.
In one case an elderly man reportedly waited outside for four hours and still only received part of his prescription. When he returned the next day to collect the rest he waited for a further 90 minutes before being turned away because the store had reached its closing time.
Emma Smith was one of those caught up in the delays. She said she needed to pick up a prescription but had heard there were long queues, so waited until Saturday June 11 to collect it. When she arrived that morning she was surprised to find a sign on the door saying the shop would only open in the afternoon.
Unable to return at that time, Emma’s partner, Tom, went in her place at around 4pm and was still queuing outside at 5.15pm when a security guard emerged to tell those waiting that anyone who was not inside the store by 5.30pm would not be served.
Tom had been speaking with the elderly gentleman who had waited for four hours the previous day, and tried to plead his case because the medication he needed was for a heart condition, but was still denied entry.
“It felt a bit wrong, really,” said Emma. “Bouncers in a nightclub can have that attitude, but bouncers outside a chemist? It was a bit baffling.”
She was able to return on Monday June 13 to try for a third time and found a smaller queue but similar delays. One man was getting particularly upset because he urgently needed to collect a prescription for his wife, who has cancer.
Unfortunately, the delays do not seem to be a one-off as comments on the review website BestCareCompare paint a picture of persistent issues at the branch.
“I made five visits to complete my prescription”, said one anonymous user. “If this was [any] other business it would go bankrupt”.
“Absolutely shambolic!” said another review from August last year. “They can never find your prescription or it’s never made up even though they’ve had a week’s notice to get it ready. Also a big queue of people and most moaning about the same thing: out of stock of prescription items, [it] takes forever to make up, can’t find your prescription, etc. Waste of time really”.
The News & Mail’s online sister publication SurreyLive approached Lloyds Pharmacy about the problems in Ash Vale, and a spokesman pointed to the ongoing shortage of pharmacists nationwide, which the Company Chemists’ Association explained last year had “been exacerbated by Covid, Brexit and ongoing NHS reforms”.
The spokesman added: “Legally a pharmacist must be present in the pharmacy for it to open and to give patients their prescriptions, therefore at times when a locum pharmacist can’t be sourced in times of sickness and absence, our last resort is to temporarily close. We are actively recruiting for a full-time pharmacist at our Ash Vale pharmacy but recruiting new pharmacists and pharmacy teams has become increasingly difficult.
“The pharmacy has also experienced a number of incidents relating to customer behaviour which are impacting service levels.
“Our regional manager is on site and we are deploying colleagues from other branches to manage the workload safely. We apologise for the impact this has on the community and appreciate their understanding at this time.”