Community spirit? Tinctures, potions and pills as well…..

Three Aberdeenshire communities have decided to take local health care into their own hands by making an application for a community-owned pharmacy in the village of Pitmedden. The pharmacy will be run by a community owned business and all profits from the venture will be ploughed back into the provision of healthcare services in the local area. Although the pharmacy will be based in the Pitmedden, it’s hoped the profits will be sufficient to fund the operation of the branch surgery in Tarves.

The villages of Tarves, Pitmedden and Methlick hit the headlines recently when a commercial pharmacy was opened in Tarves. That meant the local GPs, Haddo Medical Group, were no longer allowed to fill prescriptions and the loss of income from their dispensing forced them to close one of their branch surgeries, leaving residents without easy access to a GP. It also meant that people in Pitmedden could see a doctor, but then had to travel to Tarves or elsewhere to get a prescription filled. Campaigners from throughout the local area challenged NHS Grampian’s decision to remove dispensing from Haddo Medical Group in Pitmedden, showing that patients would have serious difficulty in accessing prescribed medicines.

Tamsin Morris, one of the local campaigners, takes up the story: “We took our case to a specially convened NHS review panel on November 22nd, who accepted our evidence and recommended to the Health Board that dispensing be restored to Haddo Medical Group for the Pitmedden area. That’s great and we welcome their support, but it also means the dispensing income is still a target for a commercial pharmacy.”

“If a commercial pharmacy opens in Pitmedden, all the income will go into a private company and the profits may well go out of the area. The only way we can avoid that is to open a pharmacy ourselves, owned by the community and leasing space within the Pitmedden surgery. Then patients have easy access to their medicines, the dispensing income stays in the community and we can put all the profits towards providing health care services in the local area. That’ll include funding the surgery in Tarves and ultimately we hope to expand the range of services that can be offered to patients.”

She continued, “We’ve actually been listening to the pharmacists – if it is a matter of patient safety, then opening a pharmacy ourselves helps to resolve the problem. Our approach chimes with the Scottish Government’s intention to empower communities and encourage enterprising community development. However, this is not just about ‘putting something back’ into our communities, it’s about not taking it out in the first place.”

Councillor Paul Johnston has been working hard in the background to support the communities throughout the process. He commented, “This is a really important step being made today, moving from a situation where local people feel defensive and threatened, to a place where they can look towards a more secure future for the basic services that they want and deserve.”

Brian MacDougall from Pitmedden has been helping set up the community company: “Communities all over Scotland are taking on assets and running them themselves – here in Pitmedden we’ve already got out own community owned wind turbine. So this seemed like a logical solution when we realised the dispensing in Pitmedden would be at risk from a commercial application. We’ve called the community company the B999 Health Trust, because it’s not only the phone number for the emergency services, it’s also the road that runs through our villages. We’ve still got a long journey ahead of us, as we’re just starting the consultation that’s the first part of a pharmacy application.”

Residents can find out more about the proposed pharmacy and add comments to the consultation at www.b999.org.uk.

The B999 Health Trust specifically prohibits any director taking a profit. All operating profits will be used for the provision of health care services within the Trust’s operating area. B999 Health Trust is beginning a mandatory public consultation on Tuesday 4^th December 2012 under The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2009, as amended in 2011. Posters advertising the consultation are displayed in Pitmedden village and notices have been placed in local newspapers – as required by the regulations.

Dispensing SAVED at Pitmedden Surgery

Hope for Tarves surgery re-opening

NHS Grampian have just voted by the narrow margin of 11 to 9 to back a recommendation to reverse the decision to stop dispensing medicines from the Doctors Surgery at Pitmedden.  The campaign to save the facility to get prescriptions from the surgery has been SAVED by a community campaign from Udny, Tarves and Methlick Community Councils along with local Councillor Paul Johnston and campaigners, Chris York, Tamsin Morris and David Hekelaar.

The campaign proved to NHS Grampian despite some misgivings on precedent, that there were serious difficulties for patients in Pitmedden and Udny in accessing dispensed medicines if the Doctors Surgery were to no longer have the rights to do this.

The Community Council’s group in particular thanked local MP  Malcolm Bruce and MSP Alex Salmond and  for their support for the Community based campaign.

The decision now means that Pitmedden surgery can continue to dispense prescriptions and the income from this will support NHS services locally, hopefully with a review to allow Tarves surgery to open again and provides a more secure future for the Methlick Surgery.

The campaign does not stop, as the group are now trying to seek a more long term sustainable solution for local residents protecting their GP and healthcare services.

To mark the occasion, an Open House will be held on Saturday (December 1) from 11am to 5 pm. The gallery exhibits paintings, sculpture and selected crafts by respected artists from all over Scotland.

Artist, Danny Ross, and his wife, Joan, bought the farmhouse at Mains of Tolquhon with the aim of turning it into both an art gallery and family home.

More than 150 exhibitions later, the gallery goes from strength to strength. Danny said: “Things may have started slowly but we soon built up a loyal following both among artists and clients.

“Indeed we are showing a number of artists in our current exhibition who took part in our opening exhibition and we have many clients who first visited when we opened in 1987.”

Among those taking part in the Christmas exhibition is Chris Bushe, son of the late Fred Bushe, founder of the Scottish Sculpture Workshop at Lumsden.  Chris is an acclaimed artist who now exhibits mainly in London. He was a young graduate when he was the first artist to hold a solo show at Tolquhon. Karen Smith, a ceramic sculptor, has created work especially for the show and her new pieces have already sold.

Danny and Joan first saw Karen’s work at her degree show at Gray’s School of Art in 1987 and she became a regular contributor. The gallery now deals with upward of 300 artists. Joan said: “In 1987 we were the only gallery in the North-east dealing exclusively with living artists. Now there are almost thirty.

“It was a leap of faith to establish a gallery but we are so glad we did.

“A huge change has come with the development of the internet as people can now see all our exhibitions online and we ship paintings worldwide.”

From the Ellon Times