Even when your minor relocation is approved by your Local PCT your probelms may not be over.
A client of mine had received, as expected, PCT approval to relocate his pharmacy from what had over the years become a very secondary shopping street, about 400m to a new site close to the town centre and close to the main town GP surgery. A national chain and a local independent both already represented in the town centre however objected to the relocation on two grounds. First that the move would leave the part of the town vacated without a convenient pharmacy. Secondly the town concerned is quite hilly and the objectors said that the elderly and disabled would not be able to easily access the pharmacy after its relocation.
We were able through research and the persuasive presentation of facts that the population using the pharmacy would still have reasonable access to pharmaceutical services at the new location. We were also able to persuade the NHSLA committee that just because there were hills in the area this did not of itself indicate that the terrain was a barrier to movement or that a different population would be served by the pharmacy at the new location, especially bearing in mind the relatively minor distance of the move.
When moving a pharmacy is important, researching and presenting the facts in the most persuasive manner clearly pays dividends