To think Pharmacies shouldn't shut for lunch anymore

Our local one isn't even open at a weekend. Have to go to one of the big names, or supermarket pharmacy if you want "out of hours".

They would be paid a lot more money than they are in the UK and they charge much much more. Whether or not the close, I'm sure all staff have a lunch break.

It's their choice, simple as that.

My pharmacy doesn't close for lunch. 8.30 to 18.30 Mon-Fri. Closed at weekends.

My primary care doctor's office is open for business from 7am to 8pm daily M-F, and 7 to 12 noon on Saturdays. There are four receptionists/ billing staff, six doctors, a phlebotomist, four nurse aides, three medical nurse practitioners, six residents (completing their family medicine training after graduating from medical school), four LCSWs (counseling), two psychiatric nurse practitioners, and a midwife on staff. They are open for business during all of their hours.

If any of your local doctors ever emigrate to the US, they'll be shocked to their core, @taxguru

I agree. Our pharmacy doesn’t dispense medicine between 130-230, and hasn’t done for years. Can still go in for over counter stuff or leave a prescription for later. Suppose depends on how many staff though.

Our GP surgery is huge (4 branches across the town and 20+ GPs named on the website) but they all close completely for lunch, doors locked, phone calls aren't answered (not even by answering machine). They could easily stagger break times and stay open, but don't. Funnily enough, it used to be a small 2 GP practice until it merged and when it was just the two of them, they staggered their lunch break and stayed open!

Because they have patients who need to see them?

Why wouldn't GPs close for lunch?

No one can just open a Pharmacy , they need permission from the council , there are specific rules around how many Pharmacies there can be in a two mile radius .

So does mine. I don’t think anything of it. They always have done.

My GP has always closed for lunch. Chemists need a break, so either go at other times, or go to a bigger pharmacy.

my GP closes for lunch

The idea of a GP closing for lunch is mind boggling.

I went to a supermarket pharmacy. I got told the pharmacist was on his meal break so it’d be over an hour. Closed or not I couldn’t get my prescription there and then.

I went into the pharmacy the other day at 8.45am and was told the pharmacist was unavailable because they were on their lunch break!

All of the pharmacies I have gone to, and I know my pharmacists by their first name and they know me by sight, stay open all day but with reduced service at some point around mid day as there is no pharmacist on the premise. So I can collect prescription already completed or buy paracetamol or similar but couldn't buy something that would require a discussion with a pharmacist.

Most of the pharmacies have the break once the lunch time rush has died down but a previous pharmacy had it at a set time 2-3 and this was highlighted on the door so thr pharmacist took their break outside thr standard lunch break windown

They might get more work if they stayed open in lunchbreaks but it probably wouldn't be enough to cover the extra costs of staying open. Plus staff will get abuse for not being able to sell some things.

Years ago they kept the shop open and the staff would explain to customers what could and couldn't be done while the pharmacist wasn't there for lunch. People used to accept it but nowadays the staff would probably get abuse for that so they close the shop.
Some pharmacists used to stay on the premises in lunch breaks so they could get some things done too but probably pharmacists want a lunch break now.

I think a lot of decisions that seem like commercially madness stem from inability to get staff.

@taxguru I don't mean get in staff just for the one or two hours, I mean stagger staff lunch breaks so the whole shop doesn't need to close.

@YouAndMeAndThem I'm not convinced that all pharmacies who close are making enough money to survive. The Boots in my nearest bigger town started closing at lunch for a couple of hours. And when it is open, it's poorly stocked, grubby looking make up counters. I think they just have lost trade to the town's other chemists who are open. It's like the owners of Boots want to run it into the ground - I don't pretend to understand the thought process.

I guess they have a captive market in some places with few pharmacies re people needing g to get their medication but if it's the case that the nhs only pays £1 plus the cost of the medicine, I can't fathom why a business would want to lose sales on all the other things that people buy from shops during their lunch hours. Once people get into the habit of buying what Boots sells, from other shops, they won't go back - the new habit has been formed.

Just seems madness to me to alienate customers when physical shops are expensive to run and need people to shop in them. It's not like Boots even has a good websire for online.

They obviously aren't losing enough money for it to be of concern to the companies since multiple pharmacy groups close at lunch time. So I don't know why it should be of concern to the consumer.

What if they can't find staff willing to work just an hour or two each day to cover?

@BungleandGeorge (love the name btw - took me right back that did), not all of us live in places with lots of shopping options on our doorsteps. My town is small - it has one pharmacy.
Yes, we can survive without buying tights or nappies during that hour , but it's madness for shops who need trade to survive, to deliberately cut themselves out of lunchtime trade.

A previous poster said that there had been a change in the law/rule to allow for deliveries.

I think it’s rather more complex. There is no ‘change in the law’ to allow deliveries. Your representative has always been able to collect a prescription for you and that is what the delivery driver is doing. Generally pharmacies only deliver to select patients who struggle to attend as it’s an inferior system. And have you tried trying to contact an online pharmacy? It’s near impossible and ime they take very little responsibility for fixing any problems!