PHARMACY PRACTICES COMMITTEE MEETING Wednesday, 12 September, 2012 at 11.30 Am Culduthel Christian Centre, Culduthel Avenue
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PHARMACY PRACTICES COMMITTEE MEETING Wednesday, 12 September, 2012 at 11.30 am Culduthel Christian Centre, Culduthel Avenue, Inverness, IV2 6AS Application by GAELPHARM LIMITED for the provision of general pharmaceutical services at Lochardil Stores, Morven Road, Inverness, IV2 4BU PRESENT Ian Gibson (Chair) Sandy Cumming (Lay Member) Michael Roberts (Lay member) Ron Shiels (APC Non Contractor Nominate) John McNulty (APC Contractor Nominate) In Attendance Andrew J Green (Area Regulations, Contracts & Controlled Drugs Governance Pharmacist) Helen M MacDonald (Community Pharmacy Business Manager) James Higgins, Gaelpharm Limited, Applicant Dale Winchester, Gaelpharm Limited, Applicant Support Michael Church, Rowlands Pharmacy Gayle MacDonald, Rowlands Pharmacy Support Charles Tait, Boots UK Limited Fiona MacFarlane, Boots UK Limited Support Wendy Laing, Area Pharmaceutical Committee Apologies Tesco Pharmacy Superdrug Pharmacy Observers Okain Maclennan (Chair of NHS Highland PPC Member in training) Dr Susan Taylor (GP Sub Committee Nominate NHS Highland PPC Member in training) Fiona Thomson (APC Non Contractor Nominate NHS Highland PPC Member in training) 1. The Chair welcomed everyone to Inverness. He asked all members to confirm that they had all received the papers for the hearing and had read and considered them. All members affirmed these points. 2. APPLICATION FOR INCLUSION IN THE BOARD’S PHARMACEUTICAL LIST Case No: PPC – Lochardil, Inverness Gaelpharm Limited, Lochardil Stores, Morven Road, Inverness, IV2 4BU The Chair asked each Committee member if there were any interests to declare in relation to the application being heard from Gaelpharm Limited. No interests were declared. 3. The Committee was asked to consider the application submitted by Gaelpharm Limited to provide general pharmaceutical services from premises sited at Lochardil Stores, Morven Road, Inverness, IV2 4BU under Regulation 5(10) of the National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2009, as amended. The Committee had to determine whether the granting of the application was necessary or desirable to secure the adequate provision of pharmaceutical services in the neighbourhood in which the Applicant’s proposed premises were located. The Committee, having previously been circulated with all the papers regarding the application from Gaelpharm Limited, agreed that the application should be considered by oral hearing. P1 Gaelpharm Limited Lochardil _ PPC 12 September 12 NOTES.doc Prior to the hearing, the Committee had, as a group, visited the vicinity surrounding the Applicant’s proposed premises, the existing pharmacies at Boots, Southside Road, Tesco, Inshes, and Rowlands, Balloan Park, all in Inverness and facilities in the immediate area and surrounding areas of Holm, Slackbuie, Lochardil, Drummond and Culduthel where social housing, two supermarkets with petrol filling stations, four primary schools, residential nursing homes, community halls and a secondary school were pointed out. They were then driven around the boundaries of the neighbourhood as defined by the Applicant, with the exception of travelling some 8 miles along the B862 to the village of Dores. The Committee had agreed in advance that since this route is sparsely populated and the patients of Dores would be most likely to access GP dispensing services in the village of Foyers there was no value in visiting this proposed boundary.The Committee then returned to the Culduthel Christian Centre, Culduthel Road, Inverness where the hearing was to be held. During the tour, the situation of GP practices, dental surgeries along Culduthel and Southside Roads were noted. The Committee then visited the proposed premises where the Applicant and Applicant Support were on hand to guide the Committee around the premises. The hearing was convened under paragraph 3(2) of Schedule 3 to the National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2009 as amended (“the Regulations”). In terms of this paragraph, the Pharmacy Practices Committee “shall determine an application in such a manner as it thinks fit”. In terms of Regulation 5(10) of the Regulations, the question for the Pharmacy Practices Committee is whether “the provision of pharmaceutical services at the premises named in the application is necessary or desirable to secure adequate provision of pharmaceutical service in the neighbourhood in which the premises are located by persons whose names are included in the Pharmaceutical List.” The Applicant, Support and Interested parties were invited into the meeting at around 11.40am 4. The Chair welcomed:- The Applicant, Gaelpharm Limited represented by James Higgins who was supported by Dale Winchester, the Interested Parties who had submitted written representations during the consultation period and who had chosen to attend the hearing, were Michael Church, Rowlands Pharmacy and Gayle MacDonald, Rowlands Pharmacy support, Charles Tait, Boots UK Limited, Fiona MacFarlane, Boots UK Limited support and Wendy Laing of the Area Pharmaceutical Committee, (“the Interested parties”). It was noted that Superdrug and Tesco Pharmacy had submitted apologies in advance to the Health Board. The Chair then invited the Committee members to introduce themselves. Committee members introduced themselves to the Applicant and all other parties. The Chair asked the Applicant and the Interested Parties to confirm that they were not attending the Committee in the capacity of solicitor, counsel or paid advocate. They each confirmed that they were not. 5. The Chair reminded everyone that the meeting had been convened to hear the application from Gaelpharm Limited for the provision of general pharmaceutical services at Lochardil Stores, Morven Road, Inverness, IV2 4BU. The application would be considered against the legal test contained in Regulation 5(10) of the National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2009, as amended. P2 Gaelpharm Limited Lochardil _ PPC 12 September 12 NOTES.doc 6. Regulation 5(10) was read out: An application shall be granted if the Board is satisfied that the provision of the pharmaceutical services at the premises is necessary or desirable in order to secure adequate provision of pharmaceutical services in the neighbourhood in which the premises are located. 7. The Chair then described the format of the hearing, reminding those attending that no new evidence could be introduced at the summing up. The procedure adopted by the Committee at the hearing was that the Chair asked the Applicant to make his submission. There followed the opportunity for the Interested Parties and the Committee to ask questions. The Interested Parties would then make their submissions. There followed the opportunity for the Applicant and the Committee to ask questions of the Interested Parties in turn. The Interested parties and the Applicant were then given the opportunity to sum up. The Chair then asked the Applicant to give his statement. 7.1. The Applicant’s Case James Higgins, Gaelpharm Limited stated “I am very grateful to the Chair, to the Committee and to NHS Highland for affording me the opportunity to appear here today and to present the evidence in support of this application on behalf of Gaelpharm Limited. I will endeavour to be as concise as possible – you will be glad to know – in presenting quite a large amount of relevant information. Our application relates to the Lochardil Stores of Morven Road, Inverness. We propose to offer a full pharmaceutical service from these premises during the hours of 8.30am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday and 9am to 5pm on Saturday with a Sunday closure. As we have heard, this application is to be judged according to the legal test and this requires us to define the neighbourhood and to consider the provision of pharmacy services within this neighbourhood. So, I will begin with a definition, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a district or community surrounding a particular place, person or object. A neighbourhood is often also defined as an area which has its own distinct identify to which its residents feel they belong and which is, to some extent, self contained and bounded by physical and geographical features both natural and man made. To illustrate the wider area of the neighbourhood, we take our western boundary as the River Ness and our northern boundary as Drummond Burn. To the east, our boundary line is formed by Culduthel Road, Slackbuie Avenue and the western edge of Fairways Golf Course and the southern edge being in a less populous area is more difficult to define could be reasonably considered as the limits of the Village of Dores, although the population is much less. On another map the city boundaries of the neighbourhood are more easily discerned. This gives us a resident population of 7,894 people as defined by Mr Cameron Thomas, a Research Officer at The Highland Council. The neighbourhood is one which has seen significant growth in recent years. The Highland Council data reveals that the data zones which in whole or in part comprise the neighbourhood has increased by more than 30% since 2000. P3 Gaelpharm Limited Lochardil _ PPC 12 September 12 NOTES.doc 18% of the population is under 16 and 19% is over 65 years of age, giving us 37% of the population who require a higher than average input from community pharmacy services. Scottish neighbourhood statistics lists the Council Ward containing our neighbourhood as having 23% of residents of pensionable age (15% above the Scottish