The University of East Anglia (UEA) will reopen its campus pharmacy after a successful year-long campaign to restore it.

Students were “really upset” the former Boots pharmacy closed in July 2023 and began campaigning for a new pharmacy to take over, the UEA students’ union welfare, community & diversity officer Nathan Wyatt told C+D this month (August 5).

The university confirmed this week (August 13) that the pharmacy “has been taken over by new independent pharmacist Anand Patel and is due to reopen in the autumn after the completion of site refurbishment works”.

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Students sought support from the students’ union (SU) to get a new pharmacy so Wyatt helped to run the campaign which involved a petition to “save” the pharmacy, as well as contacting Norwich South MP Clive Lewis who called for the pharmacy to be reinstated and gathered survey responses about the closure too.

 “This will be a huge relief to the UEA and surrounding community, and I'm delighted that this essential service has been restored”, Lewis said.

Wyatt said the new pharmacy “wouldn’t have been possible without the tireless efforts of students” and thanked “UEA’s Disabled Students' Community who provided lengthy written responses that were crucial to the application’s approval” as they struggled with accessing other pharmacies in the local area.

Pharmacy will make life "easier, healthier, and safer"

The SU officer said Boots terminated their pharmacy contract on UEA’s campus because they relied on locum pharmacists for “about two years which costs so much more than having a full-time pharmacist” so it didn’t “perform very well”.

He added that students had to travel to about 25 minutes away from campus to Earlham West to get their prescriptions which was inconvenient.

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After Patel showed interest in taking on a new pharmacy on campus, an application for a new contract was submitted to the NHS last October but an appeal was lodged by Allied Pharmacies which led to lengthy delays in getting approval.

Wyatt said Allied Pharmacies “benefitted hugely” from students visiting their pharmacy in Earlham West after the campus pharmacy closed, but its appeal was dismissed this month by the Primary Care Support England (PCSE) so the pharmacy can now open.

The SU officer complained about “the ability for large pharmacy chains to completely derail the pharmacy approval process makes it almost impossible for new independent pharmacies to break through” but was glad the return of the pharmacy will “make life for all students on campus easier, healthier, and safer”.

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On hearing the news that the pharmacy can open, Patel said he is “looking forward to establishing a new community pharmacy shop on UEA’s campus” and confirmed “drug addiction services, sexual health, immunisation services and medication supplies for private and NHS prescriptions” will be available.

Pharmacy First consultation and advice services will be provided on-site, and Patel added he is open to feedback and suggestions for products and services “people would like to see on offer”.

UEA director Becky Price said the university “heard from many students about the concern and complications the closure had caused them” so it is “grateful to everyone who worked so hard to secure new pharmacy provision on our campus”.

The new pharmacy will be based in the same location as the medical centre on University Drive, at the Bluebell Road entrance to campus.