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From the archive · Press release
Local Pharmacists' Concerns
East Ham pharmacists on the Office of Fair Trading's plan to lift limits on NHS dispensing.
Originally published 4 March 2003
From the archive. Between 1998 and 2003 this domain carried the constituency website of the Member of Parliament for East Ham. This page keeps one of its items as a historical record, with the original date restored. East Ham Ledger, which publishes the site today, is an independent magazine and has no link to any MP, party or Parliament; contact details and the names of private individuals have been removed, and lost pictures have been replaced with credited photographs of the places concerned.
Pictured today: Photo: author not stated / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Stephen Timms, MP for East Ham, met the owner of a local pharmacy business and the secretary of the North-East London Local Pharmaceutical Committee, last Friday to discuss the possible impact of lifting the current restrictions on dispensing NHS prescriptions.
The meeting follows the publication of a report by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) on the liberalisation of the pharmacy market on 17 January 2003. The report recommended that the current restrictions on dispensing NHS prescriptions should be lifted. These require owners of pharmacies to apply to the relevant Primary Care Trust for a dispensing contract, which they must have in order to be allowed to dispense NHS prescriptions. The investigation examined whether markets and the existing regulations relating to NHS prescriptions are working well for consumers.
However, the pharmacists were concerned that lifting regulations would enable more supermarkets to stock pharmaceuticals which could hit the sales of local pharmacies. Mr Timms was presented with a petition signed by 216 of the pharmacy's customers, and 131 postcards calling on the Government not to adopt the OFT's recommendation.
Stephen Timms commented, "I valued Friday's discussions on the possible effects of deregulating the pharmacy market, and I intend to take this matter up with the Government."
The accompanying picture is listed in the photo archive.
