Pharmacies in Chard could be instructed to open on Sundays in a bid to provide better access for patients.

Somerset County Council’s health and wellbeing board has put together an assessment of how well the county’s pharmacies are performing, including a review of their opening hours and the services they can provide.

Chard is currently served by three pharmacies – a Boots on the A30 Fore Street, and two branches of Lloyds Pharmacy on Fore Street and Holyrood Street respectively.

The assessment has raised concerns about pharmacies in the town not opening on Sundays, which limits how easily patients can access medication prescribed by their GPs or purchase medicine over the counter.

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Pip Tucker, the council’s public health specialist, said: “We cannot expect everyone in Somerset to have very local access to every pharmaceutical service, but initial findings are that distribution and opening times are generally appropriate, and services are commissioned in ways that largely cover the county.

“Opening hours of pharmacies are changing frequently, and these changes have often meant a reduction of access in the mornings and evenings. This reduction is in contrast to the pressure on GPs to extend opening hours to improve access.

“We are concerned that reduced hours can also have knock-on effects, such as in reducing the promptness with which patients receive prescribed medicine and increasing the distances that patients have to travel."

The assessment identifies that none of the pharmacies in Chard, Ilminster or Langport open on a Sunday, with health bosses recommending at least one Chard outlet provide some form of Sunday service to compensate for this.

Councillor Mike Hewitson – who runs pharmacies in Bridport and Sherborne over the border in Dorset – said cuts in NHS funding were leading to more pharmacies offering reduced hours to patients and residents.

He said: “Community pharmacies will have suffered a 40 per cent real-terms reduction in NHS funding by 2024. We’re starting to see a reduction in opening hours having an impact on access in rural areas.

“The whole story about access here is not just about opening hours. We’re seeing a reduction in staffing levels, which is leading to longer waits.

“Chard is one particular area of concern to me – I see a lot of patients cross-border who claim they’re having difficulty there.”

The assessment will now be formally submitted to NHS England at the end of June and will help to shape how NHS pharmacy funding is allocated until 2025.