A NEW pharmacy which wants to open in Wellington is asking town councillors to support its licensing application when they meet on Monday (March 3).

Reading-based Orange Pharmacy wants to move into a building on the Wellington Medical Centre (WMC) site in Mantle Street previously used by Boots, which closed in February last year.

Orange, founded in 2019 by a pharmacist with 15 years of experience, presently runs a distance selling pharmacy to deliver NHS medications directly to patients’ doors.

WMC patient participation group chairman Veronica Tatnall said she was working closely with GPs to gain approval for the new pharmacy.

Mrs Tatnall said many patients and other people in the town were supportive and she hoped the town council also would support the application.

She said: “Pharmacies in Wellington are overwhelmed, with no permanent pharmacist in either Boots or Superdrug, they rely on locums who change weekly.

“They do not have the same connection with the local community.

“An independent pharmacist on site at WMC will become part of the local community, not having to rely on large corporations who close if profits are not enough.”

Mrs Tatnall said a pharmacy at WMC would help meet an initiative by Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who wanted GP practices to be one-stop health shops with doctors, physiotherapists, nurses, care workers, and health visitors working together.

Currently, Wellington pharmacy staff had little time for the consultancy services which the Government wanted to see to free up GP time, because they were working so hard to keep up with the demands of issuing medications.

The workload of pharmacists was dramatically increasing as more health services were being moved to them, so it was more important than ever to have ample provision in Wellington.

Mrs Tatnall said many Wellington patients were facing long waits for their prescriptions only to then find they were not ready.

She said: “You either have to wait further, or go back.

“The example I experienced was that after a long wait, I was told no medications were being done that day as they were catching up on a backlog of 200.

“I had to go back another day.

“Not good enough when you are waiting on certain drugs that are needed.”

Mrs Tatnall said there was concern in particular for elderly and disabled patients forced to stand in queues, and experiencing the problem of trying to park near a pharmacy, whereas the medical centre had accessible parking spaces nearby.

She said a new pharmacy would also help to meet increasing demand from families as new housing was built in the town.

Orange Pharmacy manager Rebeca Davidoiu said: “We bring a fresh, modern approach to pharmacy services, blending traditional care with technological efficiency.”

Ms Davidoiu said the business was processing 15,000 prescription items per month and carrying out 70 New Medicine Service (NMS) consultations monthly and had strong partnerships with the UK’s top 10 pharmaceutical suppliers.

Orange now wanted to build on its success and expand by establishing a new, physical pharmacy in Wellington.