A pharmacist recently lost his appeal with NHS Resolution over his application to open a pharmacy in a major new housing development currently being built in South Oxfordshire. 

Local pharmacist Chaudhry Abbas was fighting to overturn the September 2023 decision of Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB) to refuse his application for inclusion in the pharmaceutical list at the Valley Park Development in Didcot on the basis of “future need”.

In his original application to open a 44-hours-per-week pharmacy, Mr Abbas raised concerns about the distance of the development – which has planning permission for “up to 4,254 dwellings,” as well as amenities including a health centre and two primary schools – from pharmacies currently operating in Didcot.

“In particular, the western part of the development which aims to house over 2,000 residents is the furthest away and may take as much a 30 minutes on foot, making the existing pharmacies within Didcot inaccessible,” said Mr Abbas, who referred to the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) “benchmark” for Didcot of pharmacies being at most 20 minutes away by foot or public transport.

Mr Abbas also noted the ageing population and relatively high rates of colorectal cancer and stroke that have been observed in South Oxfordshire.

But the bid was refused on the basis that the last PNA for the Oxfordshire region, which was conducted in April 2022, “had not identified a future need in the lifetime of the current PNA”.

The PNA said that because the Valley Park development was “not yet completed,” the area “can only be regarded as having a possible future need” after the current PNA lapses in 2025.

The ICB’s panel also “noted that the number of registered patients within 1.6km of the best estimate address [for the proposed pharmacy] was 14”.

A website for the Valley Park development run by construction companies Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon Homes indicates that a number of houses will soon go on the market.

In his appeal, Mr Abbas asked NHS Resolution’s Pharmacy Appeals Committee (PAC) to specify “the timing of future need arising,” for example once 1,000 homes have been built or when retail units are established. He also referenced the impact the closure of two LloydsPharmacy branches has had on local patients and services.

Mr Abbas’ bid was opposed by Day Lewis, Community Pharmacy Thames Valley, and Boots, the latter of which has also objected to another two applications by Mr Abbas to open pharmacies in the BOB ICB region.

Reconsidering the application in July following an appeal from Mr Abbas, the PAC noted his request for concrete information as to when a new pharmacy might be required to serve the housing development, but said “it is not committee’s role to do this”.

It upheld the ICB’s initial decision, saying that it could not grant inclusion in the pharmaceutical list “in the absence of specified circumstances in which the provision of service would meet a future need”.

Mr Abbas’s company, CA-Health Limited, has also been behind two other bids to open new pharmacies in the South East of England, one in Newbury and the other in Wallingford. A spokesperson for BOB ICB said they were unable to comment on the status of these applications as the process has not yet concluded.

Mr Abbas could not be reached for comment.