New pharmacies opening in areas hit by closures

A new pharmacy on Heaton Road is expected to open in 12 months

A decision to stop new pharmacies opening in two areas hit by closures has been overturned.

Newcastle City Council has welcomed a move to allow pharmacies to open in both Heaton and Kenton amid complaints that a shortage of services had left locals facing longer journeys and two hour queues.

Applications for new pharmacy contracts had previously been refused by local NHS officials, despite concern over the number of chemists shutting down in the city.

Appeals body NHS Resolution has now quashed two decisions made by the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (NENC ICB), which will allow Jiwa Pharm Ltd to open two new pharmacies.

Boots has closed down branches in Heaton, Jesmond, Byker, Cruddas Park and Kenton over the past two years, while a Lloyd's pharmacy inside Heaton Sainsbury's also shut.

A further application for a new pharmacy at Cruddas Park is now also under review, having been refused previously, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

'Brilliant outcome'

The Health and Wellbeing Board had agreed last year to formally declare a gap in pharmacy provision in Heaton, Kenton and Cruddas Park.

In the Heaton case, NHS Resolution ruled that NENC ICB had failed to give sufficient weight to the identified gap in services when refusing the application.

Council leader Karen Kilgour told the city's Health and Wellbeing Board on Monday it was "incredibly good news" for the affected communities.

Liberal Democrat councillor Doreen Huddart said that the Heaton closures had left the pharmacy inside the "ill prepared" Asda Byker store as the only option for chronically ill residents to collect prescriptions.

Kilgour said: "Given the area that Kenton serves, with the low car ownership and inability for people who live there to get to other pharmacies and services elsewhere, it is a brilliant outcome."

The local authority said the new sites on Chillingham Road in Heaton and Halewood Avenue in Kenton were expected to open within the next 12 months.