Update on the Pharmaceutical Needs Petition for Thames Ditton
A huge thank you to everybody who signed the petition about getting the pharmacy reinstated in the village. Together with help from the Thames Ditton Foundation, the Residents' Association achieved the magnificent total of almost 1200 signatures (1190 to be exact) thanks to the tremendous response from the residents and visitors to the village. This is really a magnificent total and will be very useful to encourage and help any applicants interested in reinstating our pharmacy.
On Wednesday 19th March Karen Randolph and Sian Bates presented the petition to the meeting of the Health & Wellbeing Board (with Surrey Heartlands ICP) in Reigate. Included in the presentation was the 'heat' map (below) showing the concentration of petitioners postcodes in Thames Ditton. Unfortunately, the HWB did not change the conclusions of the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (that there are NO gaps in pharmaceutical provision – across the whole of Surrey) but the petition prompted a long debate (possibly the longest on this subject they have ever had). We hope that this will have considerably improved the chances of success for any application to re-open the pharmacy. The debate can be seen on:
https://surreycc.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/952989
We take some comfort from the concluding remarks of the Chair (Tim Oliver, Leader of Surrey County Council) that the discussion had indicated that there would be ‘some flexibility’ in the approach to any applications (to reopen the pharmacy) based on ‘unforeseen benefits’ (which, however, no member of the meeting was willing to define!).
We understand that there is more than one potential applicant – indeed, this was hinted at during the meeting. The hurdles are significant but this is not an issue which is going to go away – so we may yet have to call on residents for their support in the future.
Many thanks again to everybody who responded … this level of support is real proof of the strength of our community.
