Residents’ concerns over pharmacy plan
A medical centre in Harborough has been accused of attempting to create a monopoly by opening an extended pharmacy.
The Market Harborough Medical Centre in Coventry Road has submitted a planning application for an extension to its consulting rooms and to a corridor.
The scheme will allow space inside of the building to create a pharmacy serving 20,000 patients in Harborough on its books . The centre already provides medicines to about 4,000 non-Harborough patients.
The pharmacy would be open for 100 hours a week, allowing people to pick up medicines late at night and at the weekends.
Shanti Mistry, of Mistrys Pharmacy in Harborough, said he and the pharmacies at Boots and the Co-op were against the plans.
He added: “We don’t want them to create a monopoly.”
Residents living near the centre are also concerned about additional traffic visiting the centre’s pharmacy.
The medical centre’s business manager David Bell said because the pharmacy would be open at weekends and in the evenings then traffic would be spread throughout the day.
He said: “At the moment many patients have an appointment, get a prescription then leave their car at the surgery to go and collect it.
“However, when the pharmacy is here they will be leaving immediately.”
Mr Bell said patients would be told they do not have to collect prescriptions at the surgery.
He added: “We do not want to create a monopoly as we are not allowed to do that.”
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Weather for Harborough
Sunday 19 May 2013
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Temperature: 10 C to 19 C
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