A NEWLY opened pharmacy in Raglan has been branded inconvenient and unwanted by a resident.

The opening of the new pharmacy, the seventh of H Shackleton Ltd, has meant that those residents living within a mile of the pharmacy have been informed by Monmouthshire Local Health Board they must not obtain medicines from the doctors surgery.

In a letter to the Chronicle, resident Mr Geoffrey Pugh said, "In their wisdom they deemed it both 'desirable' and 'necessary' for this chemist shop to be allowed to open in Raglan village, what a load of rubbish, it is neither desirable or necessary."

" It is not 'desirable' for the majority of the people who live in this village, this was shown in the petition that contained around 600 signatures to stop this from happening, it is not 'necessary' because we have a supplier of our medicines this being our totally competent, professional and qualified general practitioner.

In England in rural practices patients are given the right to choose where they collect their medicines from, well the Welsh Assembly Government had better 'wake up' and change the law here."

The dispensary in the local doctor's surgery has been used by some 2000 residents of Raglan for many years providing a professional and understanding manner.

Mr Pugh adds, "It is my understanding that the dispensary profits within this practice contributes to other services in the building, which are not serviced by the NHS but by the GP, so the impact may be felt in other areas within the practice and if qualified staff are lost in one area of the village to give a couple of shop assistants and a pharmacist a job, who is benefiting? In my view only the shop owner.

"For a business to be allowed to come into an area and be able to totally destroy another is appalling, the existing service is not allowed to compete."

Residents are also concerned about about the service the chemist offers, where they once able to visit the doctor and have their prescription available for them in the same building, they will now have to walk to the High Street, where there is no parking, to have their medicines dispensed.

Mr Pugh said that he has been told by others that the service they get is "neither satisfactory or of benefit to them."

"Firstly," adds Mr Pugh, "If a person us acutely ill they now have to drag themselves from the surgery up a steep hill, there is no parking in the High Street, and when they get there, the medicines the GP has prescribed are not available and then they have a choice, ,they can wait until the next day, they can go 12 miles to Usk and back, 18 miles to Abergavenny and back to 16 miles to Monmouth and back instead of having it immediately at the surgery as before, I wouldn't call this a beneficial service.

"Secondly the surgery does not always work within 'shop' hours, it is a busy surgery where emergencies take precedent so the surgery time can over run, well if you have an appointment that has taken you over 6pm you won't find this chemist open.

"People should make a stand, this country is falling apart and if we're not happy about something we need to get the people whose wages we pay to sort it out and now."

Ian Shackleton, director of H Shackleton Ltd told the Chronicle, "The surgery has a dispensary, not a pharmacy. Without a pharmacist the part of the surgery that deals with dispensing medicines cannot be called a pharmacy.

"The pharmacy in Raglan will provide a full range of pharmaceutical services as well as appointments even on a Saturday when the surgery is closed. Patients will be able to purchase over the counter medicines which are only available from a pharmacy, eg antibiotic eye drops for conjunctivitis without having to travel to Usk or Monmouth.

"We will also be offering a prescription collection and delivery service from the pharmacy as well as Medicines Use Reviews, free healthcare advice and many other services which the pharmacy contract has identified."

The Secretary of State for Health and the NHS contract state that doctors should prescribe and pharmacist should dispense and this should be the case unless there are unusual circumstances, such as rurality where the population would not sustain a pharmacy.

A spokesperson from Monmouthshire Local Health Board said, "The Local Health Board would like to reassure readers that any application by a pharmacy to provide services are subject to close review and must adhere to the NHS (Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations. These Regulations require that tests are applied to the adequacy of the pharmaceutical services in the location under consideration and the Welsh Assembly Government concluded that the tests applied in the case of Raglan indicated that a pharmacy was both necessary and desirable, therefore the application was granted.

"The Regulations allow for doctors to dispense medicines to patients in circumstances where there is serious difficulty, for example distance to travel.

"The Local Health Board would also remind readers that a number of pharmacies in Monmouthshire will collect prescriptions from the doctor's surgery and deliver them to the patient's home.