A LEADING member of the British Medical Association (BMA) in Scotland has said health services in rural communities have been compromised by decisions to allow pharmacies on the doorsteps of GP practices.
The Scottish Government is currently reviewing the role of GP practices that also dispense medicines, but lose the ability to do so if a pharmacy moves into their community. Many argue the loss in income from losing the dispensary makes providing GP services in small communities impossible.
Dr Jennifer Foster, who has worked in Drymen for 20 years, announced this week she was quitting the village after a pharmacy application was approved in spite of a campaign opposed to it.
Dr Brian Keighley, chairman of BMA Scotland, said in a letter to The Herald that it was "difficult to fathom" why the Forth Valley Pharmacy Practices Committee had approved the Drymen and Aberfoyle pharmacy applications in the face of "widespread and articulate community opposition".
Sources within NHS Forth Valley have argued all new pharmacy applications have to be considered in line with national regulations. Rules state that dispensing services provided by a local GP practice cannot be taken into account.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article