Pharmacy at Haddington Retail Park 'neither necessary nor desirable'

Hundreds of new homes have been built on the town’s western edge, while the retail park – home to Aldi, Home Bargains, The Food Warehouse, Costa Coffee and a petrol station – opened in 2021.

GLM Romanes, which operates Market Street Pharmacy in the town centre, wanted to open a pharmacy in the remaining vacant unit on the site.

However, its bid did not win favour with NHS Lothian’s Pharmacy Practice Committee, which dismissed the application.

The owners of the Market Street Pharmacy had planned to open a second Haddington branch in the town's retail park

George Romanes, from GLM Romanes, was “bitterly disappointed” with the decision.

He said: “I’m really disappointed because where we are in Haddington is obviously very busy and we need more space. There is very little available that is bigger in the town centre so we thought this was the ideal solution.

“We wanted to put in a machine where you can get repeat prescriptions out of the machine at night.

“I wanted to do that and have really good disability access up there.”

GLM Romanes has eight pharmacies in the Scottish Borders and East Lothian.

Mr Romanes had first registered an interest in creating a second pharmacy in Haddington in 2018.

Three factors were outlined in the increased demand for healthcare: the increase in population, the increased demand during the pandemic and, since then, Covid reticence.

Currently, Haddington’s medical practices cater for 18,000 patients, with 5,000 of those coming from surrounding villages.

READ MORE: 'High demand' for a new pharmacy at Haddington Retail Park

Mr Romanes noted that there were three pharmacies in the town centre but added: “Our Market Street Pharmacy is perhaps a victim of its own success. We’ve had to refit it twice since we took it over to ensure a good, safe workflow. Quite honestly, it is now becoming inadequate for the volume of traffic we have and the demands on the services we have.”

Mr Romanes highlighted the difficulties in parking near the Market Street business and that the size of the premises meant there were long queues on occasion.

However, no members of the committee witnessed long queues outside any of the existing pharmacies when they visited the town.

Noel Wicks, from Web Pharmacy, 20 High Street, Haddington, told members that he believed the additional pharmacy was “neither necessary nor desirable”.

He said: “The people of Haddington are rightly proud of their busy and vibrant High Street that forms the centre of their neighbourhood, and it is well known that there are concerns over the effect the out-of-town retail park might have on the High Street.

“This is particularly relevant given the close proximity of the retail park to the High Street.”

The meeting concluded that there was “no evidence” provided to demonstrate any inadequacy of the existing pharmaceutical services in the area.

A unanimous decision was taken that “the provision of pharmaceutical services at the premises was neither necessary nor desirable in order to secure adequate provision of pharmaceutical services within the neighbourhood”.