Gordons Chemist has been forced to scrap free prescription delivery across its 55 branches in Northern Ireland due to underfunding and rising costs, it told C+D.
The chain first introduced a £72 annual prescription fee in June and has been rolling it out in six phases across Northern Ireland ever since.
Gordons Chemist head of professional services Richard Dunn said that the rollout is currently in “phase 5”, with every branch expected to have adopted the change by January 1.
Read more: Elderly patients criticise Boots fees on BBC, while ITV backtracks
But he added that this was not an easy decision for the company to make.
“We’ve phoned every patient to make sure the message is relayed correctly and they understand why we’re doing it,” he said.
The pharmacy has called some patients “five, six, even seven times” and sent letters to patients’ homes, he added.
“It’s a huge amount of effort, but we’re trying to give everyone an opportunity to get on board with the change,” Dunn said.
“We should have done this five years ago”
Gordons Chemist has not had enough funds “coming in” to justify the continuation of free prescription deliveries, Dunn told C+D.
“We should have done this five years ago,” he said, adding that the fee is “required” to keep the pharmacies running.
But luckily, the “vast majority” of patients have been “very understanding” about the introduction of a delivery fee, Dunn said.
Read more: Emergency review of community pharmacy services in Northern Ireland announced
And many were “surprised” that the pharmacy hadn’t introduced the policy sooner, he added.
“Quite a few patients are getting two or three deliveries a week”, which adds up to “over 100 deliveries a year”, so when this was explained to patients, many understood the need for change, he added.
But despite their understanding, Dunn said it feels “almost [like] an apology” every time a new rollout phase is launched.
Read more: Has charging patients affected the multiples’ deliveries?
As the rollout enters its final phase, Dunn stressed that no delivery fees would be introduced in December.
It’s not “fair” or “right” to deliver that message “as we get closer to Christmas”, Dunn said.
He added that it was “possible” prescription fees would rise in the coming years, but stressed that this would not happen anytime “in the immediate future”.
