Westbury-On-Trym GP surgery pharmacy sudden closure - NHS statement on ‘ongoing issues’ at site

A pharmacy at a well-used GP has reopened - with reduced hours - after closing due to ‘staffing challenges’, a regional NHS body has confirmed.

The Westbury-On-Trym Primary Care Centre alerted patients on Wednesday (October 5) that the Jhoots pharmacy operating from the same facility, on Westbury Hill, would be closed until October 10, though it reopened the next day (October 6).

The full text read: “We have been advised that the pharmacy that shares our site, Jhoots, has today closed until next Monday.

“They are a seperate business to the surgery, and like their customers, were not notified in advance.

“We are doing everything we can to ensure patients do not run out of emergency medication.”

The message added that the surgery is ‘aware of ongoing issues’ but has no control as to how the pharmacy operates.

The Primary Care Centre surgery’s staff, who have more than 11,500 registered patients, helped Jhoots’ customers gain access prescriptions from elsewhere.

A spokesperson for NHS Bristol, North Somerset & South Gloucestershire confirmed the ongoing issues ‘related to some staffing challenges which has meant the pharmacy has closed a little earlier than planned on a few occasions’.

They said that the pharmacy closed on this occasion because due to leave and a short-notice change in circumstances with planned locum cover.

They added: “Staff were on-site to signpost patients, informing them when prescriptions would be ready and putting in place processes for patients to access urgent prescriptions allowing them to collect from other pharmacies.”