GP and pharmacy ‘crisis’ grips East Lancashire ‘with little done to improve patient access’

Doctors services and pharmacies in Pendle are suffering a ‘crisis’, according to borough councillors who are calling for action by NHS organisations and politicians.

Lib-Dem councillors Dorothy Lord and Susan Land have put forward a motion for debate at this week’s annual Pendle Council meeting, which follows the recent local elections. Concerns about GPs, old and new health centres, hospital emergency wards, ambulance response times, pharmacy delays and staff shortages have been raised at various Pendle Council meetings.

Medicines such as insulin, which people with diabetes need, were reported to be delayed or in short supply in the area this spring. And concerns have come from councillors across different political parties including Conservative Jenny Purcell, who recently lost her borough council seat in the May 4 election but remains a county councillor.

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She was critical of plans for a new Barnoldswick health clinic in a former Yorkshire Bank building, intended to replace the old Butts health clinic, and also the recent Barnoldswick pharmacy problems. Another Conservative councillor, Neil Butterworth, described long waits at hospitals at Burnley and Blackburn last year. He said he waited for a total of ten hours and backed a motion about the NHS from Dorothy Lord last year.

Meanwhile Lib-Dem David Whipp has also spoken about NHS worries including ambulance response times in West Craven. Most recently, Pendle councillors, residents and the head of the Whitworth Pharmacy chain commented about reported problems in the Barnoldswick area and issues faced by the wider pharmacy sector.

Concerns have included shorter pharmacy opening times, medicine supply chain problems, the loss or movement of pharmacy staff to other parts of the NHS, pharmacy business models, medicine costs and NHS reimbursement arrangements. Now councillors Dorothy Lord and Susan Land have put a motion to Pendle Council’s annual meeting this Thursday, May 18, calling for more action. Last year, Coun Lord said she spent 18 hours in a wheelchair waiting for a hospital bed.

Her new motion states: “Council [elected councillors] notes the continuing crisis with GP services and pharmacy provision in Pendle and that the measure recently announced will do little to ease patient access in our area.

“Council reaffirms its previous resolutions in respect of primary care within the NHS and resolves that these issues are raised again with government ministers and local MP Andrew Stephenson, together with the relevant local health providers and the Integrated Care Board.”

In April, Jay Badenhorst, head of the Whitworth Pharmacy chain, outlined a range of factors faced by the sector. He also said pharmacy bodies had launched a campaign, called Save Our Pharmacies, to raise awareness about the issues and highlight the role that chemists play in the healthcare system, particularly in ‘under-served’ communities.

Also last month, a spokesperson for the new NHS Lancashire & South Cumbria Integrated Care Board, which now organises healthcare services in the region following government changes, said no reports had been received about stock levels in Pendle being different to anywhere else in the region. But some temporary shortages at pharmacies were not uncommon.

Larger regional integrated care boards have been launched to bring NHS and social care services closer. They have also replaced the old locally-based clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) which typically included local doctors, health centres, community nurses and pharmacies based in smaller areas. They, along with dentists, typically provide ‘primary care’ to patients while large hospitals provide’ secondary care’ such as surgery or more specialist treatments.

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