IMPORTANT UPDATE REGARDING DAY LEWIS PHARMACY IN COMPASS HOUSE (BRIXHAM – KING STREET)

Posted on June 9th, 2023

Dear patients,

We wanted to make you aware of a request that has been put into NHS England by Day Lewis PLC to close the pharmacy site located within Compass House Medical Centres as this may impact on you as a patient at Compass House. If approved, the nature of this request will prevent any future pharmacies being able to open in its place on site at Compass House or elsewhere in Brixham, losing the pharmacy service at King Street forever and reducing the overall number of pharmacies available to the Brixham population.

There are many benefits to having a pharmacy on site at King Street, especially for those patients with mobility issues: there is disabled parking available immediately outside the practice on the double yellow lines for those with a blue badge, it is located directly next to a bus stop and has a lift serving the pharmacy.  

At the moment patients can immediately collect their prescription after their appointment. If the onsite pharmacy closes, then patients will need to make a separate trip to a pharmacy in Brixham to collect their medication, which could mean another journey or a walk into town from the Practice site which is not accessibility friendly, with 46 steps on one side or a steep hill that cannot fit wheelchairs or buggies down on the other.

Currently the Day Lewis within Compass House is also one of only two pharmacies in town that is open until 6pm, meaning patients returning from work have the facility to collect their medications easily.

We have provided our view to NHS England of how we feel this will impact our patients and the wider Brixham community. If you feel this closure will have an impact on you as a patient then you can put in writing any concerns regarding this closure by 18^th June 2023, by emailing PCSE.marketentry@nhs.net using reference ME2653 -CAS 224335- K2W1R6 as the subject line (very important to add this so it gets to the correct person). All correspondence received will be considered by NHS England as part of the closure application for the Day Lewis Compass House site.

Thank you for taking the time to read this update

Dr Rob Bromige, Senior Partner

Compass House Medical Centres