New pharmacy proposed for Sudbury Community Health Centre to help improve healthcare ‘synergy’

A new community pharmacy to support thousands of patients in Sudbury could soon be installed, in the hope of improving synergy between local healthcare services.

Sudbury Town Council voiced its backing for fresh proposals to add a pharmacy at Sudbury Community Health Centre in Church Field Road.

Despite a pharmacy provision being approved in the original planning permission, there is currently no such facility on site, with a number of applications from potential providers having been rejected in 2014.

This has meant patients have been required to travel from the health centre to other pharmacies in Sudbury in order to obtain their prescription medicines.

However, an increase in patient numbers due to the rising town population, coupled with the recent closure of the Lloyds Pharmacy branch in Sainsbury’s, has given rise to fresh impetus for a pharmacy at the health centre, which also hosts Siam Surgery as a tenant.

At Sudbury Town Council’s recent leisure and environment committee meeting, pharmacist Zahid Shah told members he had reached an agreement with NHS Properties to use a purpose-built space at the centre for a pharmacy.

Mr Shah, who has practiced as a locum pharmacist for the last five years, emphasised the need for such a facility, citing data indicating that hypertension, obesity and asthma were all more prevalent in Suffolk than the national average, while more than half of opiate users were not in treatment.

“For a while, I’ve been covering some of the branches in Sudbury town centre,” he said. “There’s a lot of elderly patients who are turning up to pharmacies, and some of them are overworked as well.

“All of those patients are coming from Siam Surgery, either having to walk to town or take a bus.

“There’s a pharmacy situated in the plans, so it’s strange that they don’t have a pharmacy there.

“I think the pharmacy is a must, and it could cover all of those services I have outlined, and benefit the people of Sudbury to live a healthier life.”

In response, town councillors expressed support for the proposal, with some stating they were surprised that the site did not already have a pharmacy.

Sudbury mayor Ellen Murphy said: “I always believed there was going to be a pharmacy, because it’s very difficult for people coming from the town and especially Cornard if they’ve got to pick up medication.

“They get their prescription, then have to come into town in a cab and then probably get a cab to go home, so it becomes quite expensive.”

Nigel Bennett, who worked with the NHS as the town council representative when the health centre was in its design stages, added: “Right from the start, the original plan was for a pharmacy to be in there.

“That’s why there is a space for a pharmacy, as you come into the entrance on the left.

“It’s a community healthcare centre, with clinics and GPs, and that’s why there needs to be a pharmacy, because it all works together. It’s a synergy.

“The idea that people go there and then have to travel somewhere else to get pharmaceuticals, then go home makes no sense. To me, this is a no-brainer.”