After contact from the NHS, LUSU have set up the campaign “Move the pharmacy to Central Campus”. They have until this Wednesday (Week 3) to collate as many comments as possible to send to the NHS, favouring the movement of the University’s pharmacy from its current location in Bailrigg House to a location in Central Campus.
In the email from the NHS (Lancashire and Greater Manchester), Mark Lindsay, Primary Care Commissioning said the area’s Pharmaceutical Services Regulation Committee has been discussing the issue of the provision of pharmaceutical services at Lancaster University and that the Committee believes there is a need for a pharmacy on the university site.
The email also stated that NHS England is assessing a proposal submitted by the current contractor to determine an alternative model for the future provision of services. This proposal includes the hope for the pharmacy to move to a more central location on the campus. There could be a change in opening hours.
Lindsay encouraged the information about the possibility of the move to be advertised around campus through the “students union, staff room, GP surgery, canteens, sports facilities, etc.” and for any comments from service users to be collated and given to the NHS by Wednesday.
As a result, President Laura Clayson and VP (Welfare and Community) Mia Scott have set up the campaign “Move the Pharmacy to Central Campus” and are encouraging people to like the Facebook page, which currently has over 700 likes, and comment as to why they are in support of the move. On Friday Week 2, the campaign travelled around campus and students and staff were pictured holding a board that said “I want the pharmacy in the centre of campus” to show their support.
Speaking to SCAN, Scott said: “I think it’s important for students that the pharmacy is moved to central campus because at the moment it is in a very isolated location in the far North of campus.” She said this posed several problems, “It is a very long way to go for students who live in the southern end of campus, it is located in a very isolated area, so many people don’t know that it exists, and if they do, they struggle to locate it and it is not near the medical centre.”
Scott added that “Having it right in the central “hub” of campus will make it visible and easily accessible to everyone – students and staff alike” and suggested that “it may help to alleviate doctor’s waiting times if people know that they can go into the pharmacy to ask for help and advice for minor things.”
The University are also in support of the move and Professor Amanda Chetwynd Provost for Student Experience, Colleges and the Library said “We have been in discussion with the NHS for several years about our request to move the pharmacy to a more central location that would be convenient for students and staff. We have provided the NHS with survey data showing the need for the pharmacist to move. We are very pleased that the NHS is consulting us about this and hope we shall soon have a pharmacist in the centre of campus.”
