Pharmacists are seeking damages from PCTs that "deliberately" blocked their applications to open 100-hour pharmacies, lawyers have revealed.

Law firm Charles Russell said it was pursuing claims for "substantial damages" against trusts that failed to process 100-hour applications before the cut-off date of September 1.

And this rendered void some applications "validly submitted" before September's changes to control-of-entry regulations, the legal experts have argued.

Charles Russell head of healthcare David Reissner said he was "confident" that deliberately ignoring applications constituted a breach of the law	More on 100 hours GPs eye surgery pharmacies despite 100-hour demise FAQ: Farewell, 100 hours Why the Department of Health removed the       100-hour exemption
	Charles Russell head of healthcare David Reissner said he was confident that deliberately ignoring applications constituted a breach of the law – and PCTs faced the possibility of paying out substantial sums of money. Mr Reissner could not name the PCTs or companies involved as it could jeopardise the claims, he said.

Pharmacy companies told C+D they had not encountered any problems with the processing of their 100-hour applications. Tesco superintendent pharmacist Adrian Price said the supermarket had nothing to report, while independent chain MedicX Pharmacy said it had no experience of its applications being unduly delayed. Sainsbury's declined to comment.

The removal of the 100-hour exemption in September was backed by the overwhelming majority of respondents to the Department of Health's consultation on the issue. But the proposals faced opposition from Tesco and Asda, with Sainsbury's labelling them a retrograde step.

In the 2011-12 financial year, 716 applications were made to open 100-hour pharmacies, of which 92.5 per cent were granted, according to NHS figures released a fortnight ago.

If the exemption had continued, the DH estimated it would have seen a further 851 pharmacies open in the next 10 years – costing the NHS an estimated £72 million a year.