Harriett Baldwin, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for West Worcestershire was invited to Upton Surgery on Tunnel Hill today to receive a petition from thousands of Worcestershire patients who fear the loss of their ability to pick up prescriptions at their GP surgery. GPs from Pershore Medical Practice and Abbotswood Surgery in Pershore also travelled to Upton with petitions from their patients. 2,500 Upton patients had signed the petition, 2, 600 Abbotswood patients and 704 Pershore Medical Practice patients had signed the petition.
If the government's proposed White Paper on dispensing GPs becomes law, local GPs may have to cut services and lay off staff, including possibly some nurses or doctors.
GPs in market towns and large villages across Worcestershire could fall foul of proposed new rules being consulted on by the Labour government. At the moment, if a patient lives more than 1 mile from a pharmacy, they can enjoy the convenience of picking up a prescription at their local GP. The new rule could state that if the GP practice is within 1 mile of a prescription pharmacy, the GP can no longer dispense. Therefore the main impact willbe in market towns rather than in villages which do not have a pharmacy.
Harriett Baldwin said, "I congratulate these three surgeries for collecting so many signatures. They demonstrate the strength of feeling of patients against these changes. I have now sent these to Sir Michael Spicer MP at the House of Commons and he will send them on to the Minister as part of the consultation.
We are also interested to hear the views of local pharmacies on this issue."
Photo: From L to R , Dr, John Kane, Philippa WHite, Harriett Baldwin, Dr. Tom Pitts Tucker, Dr. Andrew Havercroft, Frances MacFadyen, Julie Moore, Mel Adams and Dr. Simon Lee