A Bristol pharmacy says it would have needed a 40% rent reduction to stay in a health centre with “sky high” rental costs.

Pharmacy owner Imran Ahmed told C+D this week (August 12) renting the location at Lawrence Hill Health Centre in Bristol, which the Easton Day Night Healthcare owner took over from Lloyds in 2022, cost "around £30,000" a year. 

Ahmed owns six pharmacies and took over the fifteen-year lease in Lawrence Hill Health Centre from Lloyds in December 2022, with it set to expire in October 2024.

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But when it came to renegotiate, Ahmed said “our starting points were completely apart."

He says it would have taken a drop to around £18,000-£20,000" to have considered staying, he added, though he also said the existing rent of £30,000 was "typical for what we see in health centre locations in this area."

Misleading

 

After unsuccessful discussions with the GP partner at the health centre Ahmed has found an alternative location half a mile away by Lawrence Hill station, and has applied to relocate there.

He said the rental market’s “landscape has changed quite significantly” in the past fifteen years, and along with the high rental costs, Ahmed said a pharmacy’s geographical location by a health centre isn’t as important as it used to be because of the electronic prescription service (EPS).

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But Lawrence Hill GP partner Dr Jack Ogden told C+D this week (August 13) “it’s in the patients’ best interests to stay”, and they had offered a 30-40% reduction on what an independent valuator suggested when assessing a rental price ahead of the new lease.

“The rent has stayed the same pretty much for 20 years but they wanted 20% less than what they were paying when they took over,” Ogden said.

He added that they sent out a survey which showed 95% of patients “wanted the pharmacy to stay” in its current location, and the proposed new location is on a main road with “no parking” which would be a problem for a lot of patients who used disabled parking available at the health centre.

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But Ahmed said the survey was misleading, as was a poster calling to ‘save the pharmacy’, as both said the new pharmacy would be on Church Road in Redfield, where Ahmed already owns a pharmacy, leading to confusion amongst patients.

“Using the wording they've done, it makes it look as if we're closing and merging with the existing pharmacy on Church Road but where we'd be moving to is a new location on the road Lawrence Hill,” Ahmed said.

He added that the business rates at a high street location are “a third” cheaper compared to the “£13,000 a year” they pay at the health centre and believes most of the pharmacies closing in the area are ones at health centres because the rent is “sky high”.

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Ogden confirmed to C+D that his practice will object to the pharmacy’s application to move to the proposed new location, which Ahmed submitted last month.

He added the health centre will look for other pharmacies to move into their building as “lots of new residential building near us” means it is still an attractive location for a pharmacy.

Meanwhile Ahmed said he wants to stay in the health centre after the lease finishes in October until they move to a new location “probably next year”.

Ogden confirmed the health centre is “happy to extend” the lease.