Amidst rumours that some Tesco pharmacies are set to close, the supermarket chain yesterday (February 19) confirmed to C+D that ten will soon shut their doors.
“Following a comprehensive review, last month we took the difficult decision to close a small number of our pharmacies later this year, in line with customer demand,” a Tesco spokesperson said.
“We remain committed to providing our customers with the very best pharmacy services and continue to have a network of over 350 pharmacies across the country open and ready to help,” they added.
Read more: Tesco reveals proposals to close eight in-store pharmacies
Tesco will be closing 10 pharmacies in total later this year, but the locations will continue to operate as normal until their closure date, the supermarket said.
There will be clear signage in all the impacted stores regarding the closures, as well as information on where customers can locate their nearest alternative pharmacy, it added.
Read more: Hundreds sign petition to save Tesco pharmacy in PM’s constituency
Customers can be assured that there is an alternative Tesco pharmacy within a 5-mile radius, it said.
And it added that it is the supermarket’s priority to support impacted colleagues individually to discuss what this change means for them.
Tesco did not yet confirm which locations are set to close, nor whether any more closures are planned in the near future.
High street closures
It comes after the supermarket chain previously announced in April 2023 that it was closing eight of its in-store pharmacies just months after it had first mooted the idea.
The eight locations were all 100-hour pharmacies and the “difficult decision” to close them was made because “the branches [were] not seeing sufficient customer demand to sustain their long opening hours”, Tesco said at the time.
Read more: Tesco to move ahead with plans to close eight in-store pharmacies
And according to documents seen by C+D in December, Asda pharmacists at “some stores” who refuse to “align to [Asda’s] new model” have been offered redundancy.
The move came after the supermarket offered pharmacists a one-off payment of £1,000 to change “voluntarily” to a model of compressed contracted hours in June.
Read more: The locations of all eight Tesco pharmacy branches closing from August
Meanwhile, Tesco yesterday (February 19) announced the launch of a “free NHS blood pressure check” at its in-store pharmacies to “help detect cases of undiagnosed high blood pressure and prevent cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes”.
And in November the supermarket announced the launch of a new “dedicated health zone” to expand its pharmacy services and provide customers with “easy and convenient” healthcare while they shop.
