An Exeter pharmacy’s workers were left in “shock” after being locked out of the premises by its GP landlord who terminated the lease “without notice” earlier this month, the pharmacy’s finance director Suhail Sharief told C+D.
Staff at the Allied Pharmacies branch in Heavitree Health Centre turned up to work as usual on January 14 to find a notice of closure and repossession, following months of negotiations with the landlord over rental costs for the premises, he said.
Read more: Pharmacy says it needs a 40% rent cut to stay in health centre location
A notice on The Heavitree Practice and South Lawn Medical Practice websites – which are both located in the Heavitree Health Centre - said that they “had to make the difficult decision to lock the doors of the Allied Pharmacy that is attached to the health centre”.
“We are disappointed at the loss of an on-site pharmacy and are working hard to remedy this,” it added.
Four times more than the high street
Disputes over the pharmacy were revealed in July when a petition from South Lawn Medical Practice’s Dr Lucy Spriggs aimed to “halt” a “proposed consolidation” of the pharmacy with a nearby Allied Pharmacies branch on Fore Street.
A subsequent petition by the pharmacy chain in September said it “had to make the unfortunate decision to submit closure plans…due to the extortionate rent demands set by the adjoining surgery who own the building”.
“These costs equate to almost £100,000 per year in rent, rates and service charge alone which is quite simply unattainable in the current climate,” the petition added.
Read more: ‘A warning to landlords’: Six health centre pharmacy contracts terminated
Sharief told C+D this month that the pharmacy had made “various offers” to the landlord including an “outrageous” one to pay rent arrears, but there was “no response to [its] suggestions at all”.
He said that the current rent without rates and service charges at Heavitree Health Centre is £56,000 for a “significantly smaller” premises than the branch at Fore Street, where the rental cost is £14,000 per year.
Despite assurances that the practice would not close the pharmacy without prior notice, Sharief said “they did exactly that with no warning at all”.
Read more: Health centre pharmacy faces potential 220% rent hike, contractor claims
“Access has been extremely limited to the pharmacy to be able to manage the situation,” he told C+D.
He added that despite previously deciding not to go ahead with the merger, Allied Pharmacies “had no choice once [it was] forced to close” and it completed the merger the following day.
Former Lloydspharmacy
Allied Pharmacies moved into the Heavitree Health Centre in September 2023 after taking over both the health centre and Fore Street premises from Lloydspharmacy, C+D has learned.
The health centre lease was due to run until 2029 and the pharmacy had deposited six months’ rent in advance but an annual increase was applied by the landlord shortly after it commenced service on the site, C+D understands.
Read more: ‘A lot’ of ex-Lloydspharmacy branches facing ‘serious problems’, IPA warns
Sharief added that a change in how rent is calculated for NHS pharmacy premises - from a charge per square metre to a charge based on the number of patients registered at the associated GP practice – also led to soaring rent prices.
C+D approached the Heavitree Practice and South Lawn Medical Practice for comment.
It comes after a Bristol pharmacy revealed in August that it would have needed a 40% rent reduction to stay in a health centre with “sky high” rental costs as it quit a health centre premises for the high street.