Hitesh Dodhia of Parade Pharmacy is appealing to Chorleywood residents to sign a national petition and write to our MP in a bid to save local pharmacies.
Nearly a quarter of chemists may have to close down because of funding cuts with those most at risk being the smaller, family-run pharmacies including our highly valued Parade and R&O.
Pharmacies typically offer medical and disability aids, health & beauty products, vitamins, minerals, herbal and homeopathic remedies. But just as important in villages like ours is the unseen service, the expertise and experience of the pharmacy team that leads to valuable advice and support, not to mention their camaraderie and the company.
‘ We are only acknowledged for our role of dispensing prescription medicine” says Hitesh, “But we act as a crucial focal point in the community, we act as advisors, counsellors and friends every day and pick up things like providing first aid if anybody has an accident in the street. We make sure the patient knows how, why and when their medicines should be taken – especially relevant after hospital discharge. We are part of a whole network of healthcare professionals and often the first sounding board, pointing customers in the right direction according to their complaint – which is sometimes the Health Centre but can be to nursing care, meal deliveries or complementary services like Physiotherapy. All this is invisible and unquantifiable on a piece of paper. “
The bottom line is that our pharmacists deal with people when they are both unwell and well and are all round life savers.
But it’s not local residents who need convincing of this, it’s the Government. It’s over to us to support our Pharmacists now.
* Write a letter or email David Gauke MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA or email him at david@davidgauke.com
telling him that you want him to back your local pharmacies.
* Sign the online petition at www.supportyourlocalpharmacy.org
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