DISPENSERS and GPs at Chawton Park Surgery are said to be "over the moon" at the response from patients to their 'Save Our Dispensary' campaign.

The campaign has been set up in response to the Government's recent White Paper which proposes changing the distance requirements for the establishment of dispensing practices – a change that could result in the closure of GP practice dispensaries if there is a retail pharmacy sited too close nearby.

Currently the eligibility of a practice to run its own dispensing service is determined by the number of patients who live outside the urban area and over one mile from their nearest chemist.

However, revised criteria would measure the distance from the surgery to the nearest pharmacy, which could leave those patients out in the cold, placing the emphasis on the well being of commercial retail outlets rather than the communities they serve.

In the case of Chawton Park Surgery out of a patient list of 9,100 the in-house dispensary is able to serve 2,500 who fit the criteria.

According to practice manager Margaret Lockett the Cubitt practice has held a dispensing licence for around eight years, issued before the distance criteria was introduced.

The licence was in operation even before the practice moved from Alton Health Centre to its new building in Chawton Park Road and remained untouched by the current distance criteria, but the new proposals could prove extremely damaging.

If the Government removes its right to dispense it will result in job loss and have a detrimental impact on those who use the service.

On behalf of the practice, Dr Matt de Quincey said he had been "astonished at the energy, eloquence and ferocity" with which patients had written to the Department of Health and to the Prime Minister defending Chawton Park Surgery's right to keep its dispensary.

"We are all but a mile from the nearest pharmacy back in town and were determined to put up a fight.

"Number 10 frowns on organised petitions these days, and asks for responses to be individualised, and they were!" said Dr de Quincey.

He confirmed that the practice had received a tranche of letters from 'rural' patients as well as from those living in town – those who, because of the distance ruling, are currently barred from using the surgery dispensary but invariably posed the question why they couldn't do so.

"The letters were often quite moving, quoting the erosion of rural services, and varied from a little hand-written plea from an old lady to headed note paper quoting Hansard.

"Believe me, they all got waved at the Department of Health, carried the best weight, and we are truly grateful", said Dr de Quincey.

While the White Paper consultation period is now formally closed, the practice has vowed to fight on, bringing the weight of patient pressure to bear on other bodies, such as Hampshire County Council, who can influence NHS services.

"I fancy the Health and Overview Scrutiny Committee of HCC will take a dim view of riding roughshod over this weight of opinion," said Dr de Quincey.

"In voicing their opposition to these retrograde proposals, our patients haven't been nice to us, they have been vociferously logical."