Worried Portlanders fear all 13,000 residents will only have access to ONE pharmacy

The Mayor of Portland says 13,500 people could lose access to “basic health needs” if the local pharmacy is closed.

Boots Fortuneswell is just one of two pharmacies on the Island and has been described by residents as a “local institution.” It's now at risk of closure.

Mayor Carralyn Parkes told us: “The staff know us as patients, and they go above and beyond what is demanded to take care of people.”

Mayor Parkes believes Boots are opting to close the pharmacy in Fortuneswell because the Easton branch is “only a mile and a half away.”

But she told us: “It’s easy to say a mile and a half isn’t far when you’re sat in an office in London, and you haven't actually been to Portland or seen the terrain.

“To go from one pharmacy to the other, you have to climb a hill like Everest and for many residents it isn’t accessible.”

She’s challenged the CEO of Boots, Sebastian James, to join her in walking from the Gatehouse surgery in Underhill where people would pick up their prescriptions, all the way up to the surgery in Easton to demonstrate the difficulty residents would face.

“Worried” residents fear the closure of Boots Fortuneswell will cause the only remaining pharmacy in Easton to become “overstretched.”

Mayor Parkes added: “I can see the pharmacy in Easton struggling to deal with the increased volume of patients and people not being able to access basic healthcare with the ease that they should in the 21st century.”

Portland residents have been urged to attend a meeting on Friday, January 19 at 7.00pm, at the Portland Community Venue to decide action on the closure of a pharmacy.

Invitees will include representatives from the NHS, the Integrated Care Board, Dorset Council, Royal Manor Healthcare Centre and Richard Drax, MP.

A petition to save the pharmacy has now amassed over 1,000 signatures.

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