NHS Fife has been accused of failing patients, following the latest twist in a village’s long-running pharmacy saga.
Balmullo looks set to remain without a pharmacy after an appeal against the opening of one in the local GP practice was upheld by the same committee which gave the go-ahead for the venture six months ago.
The pharmacist behind the plan blamed a “procedural error” by the health authority for denying the community said to be the biggest in Fife without a pharmacy access to prescription dispensing services.
The appeal by neighbouring pharmacies was referred back to Fife’s pharmacy practices committee by the National Appeal Panel due to its “clear failure” in narrating its reasons for approval.
Controversy over Balmullo’s lack of dispensing services goes back five years, when a new pharmacy was proposed in Leuchars, threatening the dispensing licences of GP surgeries in both villages.
Applicant Raymond Kelly, who runs the Lomond Pharmacy in Falkland, said: “The only reason we are in this situation is the health board didn’t do what it was supposed to do.
“We are particularly aggrieved and very, very angry and we are not prepared to let the matter rest. Our feeling is that someone has dropped the ball and that’s not good enough.”
He intends to appeal the decision but fears that a third bite of the cherry will be unsuccessful.
He said: “You might get a second bite but you don’t get a third bite. There’s a slim chance we can get the right decision reinstated.”
The application to run a pharmacy in the Pitcairn Practice is the second by Mr Kelly, who was denied a licence in 2010.
Following the opening of the Leuchars pharmacy, Pitcairn Practice was initially permitted to continue dispensing prescriptions but told to stop in May last year.
NHS regulations stipulate a GP practice can only dispense drugs if patients would otherwise have serious difficulties in obtaining them. The latest development has prompted anger in the village.
Resident Alan Kennedy, who led a campaign against the Leuchars pharmacy, said: “Balmullo is yet again denied what a huge majority of its residents want a one-stop dispensing service.
“The many campaigns over the past three years to keep a dispensing service in Balmullo have again been thwarted by regulations which are as undemocratic as they are arcane.
“Perhaps it might be time to seek an external independent examination of how NHS Fife has failed its patients in this matter.
“Those who time and time again have voiced their support, filled in surveys and held packed community meetings to keep local dispensing of the sort they want from either their GP or a pharmacist they know and trust, deserve nothing less.”
Tay Bridgehead councillor Tim Brett said: “The community will be bitterly disappointed with the outcome of the further hearing last week.
“Residents of Balmullo have made it absolutely clear they wish to see a pharmacy and the doctors’ surgery has the space to accommodate one.
“The recommendation from the hearing in November was it should be approved and now the same panel has changed its mind people will find it very difficult to understand how that can occur.”
NHS Fife primary care manager Joyce Kelly said: “The applicant has the opportunity to appeal the decision. Therefore, it is inappropriate that any further comment is made at this time.”