Assessments designed to judge Wellington's future pharmaceutical needs are "not fit for purpose", local health bosses have admitted.
Patients in and around Wellington have struggled in recent times to secure medication and treatment from local pharmacies, following the closure of the Boots pharmacy at Wellington Medical Centre in February 2024 and the loss of the Jhoots branch in September 2025.
The town received a welcome boost in March when a new Allied Pharmacy opened in the former Jhoots site, following "relentless" campaigning by the Wellington Pharmacy Action Group and the intervention of local MP Gideon Amos.
But Somerset Council's director of public health, has admitted that the process of assessing and commissioning pharmaceutical services may need drastic changes to better meet the needs of local people going forward.
Roger Tozer, lead campaigner with the Wellington Pharmacy Action Group, raised the issue when the council's adults, health and housing scrutiny committee met in Bridgwater on Friday morning (September 18).
In a statement read out on his behalf, he said: "Boots pharmacy at Wellington Medical Centre - the largest pharmacy in the TA21 postcode area, dispensing approximately 13,000 prescription items per month - closed in February 2024.
"Under the NHS (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013, the Somerset Health and Well-being Board has a proactive duty to keep the pharmaceutical needs assessment under review, and to issue a supplementary statement where material changed circumstances arise.
"The council's response to a Freedom of Information request confirmed that an analysis was carried out following the closure, but that nothing was written down because no concerns were identified.
"Two-and-a-half years later, the board has still not formally recorded in writing whether that closure required any response under its statutory framework.
"Was anything required when Boots Wellington Medical Centre shut in February 2024? Was a written assessment carried out, does it exist, and can it be produced?"
Alison Bell, the council's director of public health. thanked Mr Tozer and his fellow campaigners for their "relentless focus" on this issue, and admitted it had been "a very difficult year for pharmacies" both in Wellington and across Somerset.
She said: "It is vital that our population have confidence that our high street pharmacies can meet their needs.
"It has been a very difficult year for pharmacies in Somerset, with one of our national providers with eight sites in Somerset (and many more nationally) going into administration, affecting pharmacy access for residents across Somerset.
"I personally raised safety concerns that this issue was affecting our residents with the chief nurse at the Somerset integrated care board (ICB), and she raised this regionally, which helped to expedite a resolution.
"The pharmaceutical needs assessment is a nationally prescribed process, enshrined in legislation to inform commissioning decisions for pharmacy provision.
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"Many of us working in this area do not believe it is a fit for purpose process, but we are bound by the legislation.
"The guidance in place in February 2024, when the Wellington Medical Centre's Boots pharmacy was closed, did not require any documentation associated with the changes in pharmacy provision, because it wasn't judged to be of a significant extent.
"The town still had other pharmacies within its boundaries."
Councillor Andrew Govier (Labour, Wellington), said that health outcomes in his division had improved dramatically since the new Allied pharmacy had opened on Mantle Street in March.
He said: "I'd like to thank Mr Tozer for the interest he has taken in this matter.
"The situation in Wellington has significantly improved over the last few months with the opening of a new pharmacy in the town.
"We now have three pharmacies and that has resulted in queues falling and the other problems being resolved.
"We are confident now going forward that with those three pharmacies, we are actually getting the needs of the population met."
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