The proposal follows a “recent review”, which is different from the strategic review that is currently being conducted by Boots UK’s parent company Walgreens Boots Alliance, the spokesperson clarified to C+D today (January 19).

They did not, however, reveal how many pharmacies would be affected by these changes.

Boots UK regularly assesses how it structures its teams “to ensure we have the right team members in the right places to serve our patients”, the spokesperson added.

C+D asked whether this means that redundancies are likely to follow, but Boots said that it expects these changes to have a minimal impact on community pharmacy jobs – although it is too soon to confirm this.

“Our ambition for healthcare is to empower our pharmacy team members to play a greater role in primary care, spending more time with patients and operating at the centre of their evolving healthcare needs,” the spokesperson said.

“To do this, we must carefully assess our pharmacy network to ensure that our provision is offered where and when it is needed,” they added.

However, Boots said that these changes mean that total pharmacy opening hours across its UK branches will decrease by less than 6%.

 

PDA: Reducing hours will impact patient access

 

The Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) is concerned that Boots’ intention to reduce opening hours at some branches “will negatively impact on patient access to a trusted healthcare professional”, it wrote in an update to its members last night (January 18).

The union called on the NHS to adequately fund the community pharmacy sector as “even small reductions in opening hours when aggregated may add up to a significant reduction of access to valuable pharmacy services across Boots”.

While the PDA understands that fewer pharmacists are likely to be impacted by these changes when compared with their non-pharmacist colleagues, Boots pharmacists who are invited to join discussions about their future employment circumstances should avoid acting as responsible pharmacists (RPs), it advised.

“The PDA believes it can be unreasonable for a manager to be required to simultaneously hold sensitive formal discussions with team members about their future employment while also acting as the RP and be liable to interruption and distraction,” it wrote.

Meanwhile, pharmacists who are store managers will also need extra time to process these changes, the PDA added.

 

Concerns about safe staffing levels

 

The union has flagged concerns with the Boots management team to ensure any changes to working hours do not lead to “existing activity” being “compressed” into fewer working hours, it said.

“Although senior company representatives have stated this is not the intention, trade unions know that implementation of organisational change by local management does not always match the expectations of decision makers,” the PDA wrote.

In an email sent to Boots UK employees last week, CEO Sebastian James wrote that it is “realistic to think” that Boots UK could become “an independent company again”. However, “there will be a period when the exact way forward is not known”, he added.

Sky News reported last week (January 11) that US private equity firms Bain Capital and UK-based CVC Capital were pursuing a multi-billion-pound takeover of Boots UK.

Meanwhile, supermarket chain Asda is reportedly considering a takeover of Boots UK, according to an article in the Mail on Sunday last weekend.

 

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