Pharmacy closings a bitter pill for many
Shuttering of Walgreens in Albany, Menands seen as blow to communities
Two Walgreens stores closed last Friday afternoon — one on North Pearl Street in Albany and one in Menands.
Patients’ prescriptions are being sent to neighboring locations, blue signs posted at the stores read. But for many patients and former employees, the closure is not that simple.
“I feel miserable. This store is closing and I don’t have a job,” one employee at the North Pearl loca
It’s a very big inconvenience for senior citizens that live here in the village. Now we have to go to Watervliet or Loudonville, which is a drive for us.”
Dave Teitsch, Menands resident
tion said the night before the store closed. “And for the people in the community that shop here too, it’s not fair to them.”
The closings have community members, pharmacy academics, city officials, and state legislators concerned about the lack of access to health care and food that the closures will create — as well as leaving 27 employees out of a job.
The two closings come after the closing of two other local Rite Aids — one on Ontario Street in Cohoes in May 2019 and the other on South Pearl Street in Albany in 2018. Those closings sparked similar concerns about lack of access to pharmaceutical care and basic foods. In March, Walgreens purchased 1,900 Rite Aid stores, with plans to close a third of the stores it acquired, the Times Union previously reported.
“This is creating a health care desert and a vaccination desert,” said Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan. “Many people rely on their pharmacy for health care, for getting the flu vaccine, for being able to talk to a pharmacist about concerns or questions that they have with respect to conditions or medications. And this is again negatively impacting a neighborhood that is predominately made up of African Americans.”
“I’m pretty disturbed by it,” said Diane Dewar, a health policy professor at the University at Albany. Pharmacies are taking on a major role in medical care delivery, especially during the pandemic as they provide COVID -19 tests and vaccinations, Dewar said.
Prescriptions from the North Pearl Street location are being transferred to the Walgreens on Holland Avenue. For people without a car or who rely on public transportation the distance is a significant barrier, Dewar said.
“I can see Walgreens closing stores to keep afloat. … I know money is tight everywhere,” Dewar said. “The problem I’m having with it is not Walgreens, they are just doing their job, they are a company not a charity, but they have just created a pharmacy desert. That is a societal and equity problem.”
In Menands, the village clerk, Don Handerhan, is worried about elderly residents who relied on the Walgreens for medical care.
“It’s a very big inconvenience for senior citizens that live here in the village. Now we have to go to Watervliet or Loudonville, which is a drive for us,” said Dave Teitsch, a resident of Menands for 10 years. Walgreens used to send a pharmacist to the senior group he and his wife are a part of to administer flu shots each year.
Dr. Greg Dewey, the president of Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, says that pharmacists are a staple in the community and have been throughout history.
“The counseling service is important,” Dewey said. “That is where the trust comes in and when you lose that trust you have lost the trust of a counselor. Sometimes it takes years to develop that relationship, and when that disappears the community is hurt by it.”
Pharmacists also play a role in helping residents transition out of the hospital and into taking care of themselves at home, advising people who might not have a primary care doctor about medical concerns and making sure patients stay on track taking their medicines, Dewey said.
“Walgreens not only showed blatant disregard for the people of the communities whose lives will be impacted by these closings but also 27 working people with good union jobs,” said Mindy Berman, the regional communications director for 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. “That is painful for those families and also for the local economy, because of course, good jobs are drivers in a community’s economy.”
Walgreens did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Sheehan, state Sen. Neil Breslin, and Assembly member John Mcdonald, himself a pharmacist, are looking to create government incentives to help keep pharmacies in low-income neighborhoods where they might not make as much profit.
“This pandemic has demonstrated in very stark numbers the health care disparities that have existed in this country for centuries. When you look at the fact that Black and brown Americans have been so disproportionately impacted, they have gotten sicker, and died at much higher rates than Caucasians. And access to testing has been a continual struggle throughout this pandemic and now access to vaccines is a huge struggle,” Sheehan said. “Closing this pharmacy in a neighborhood that serves that very population to me is indefensible.”