Elderly woman faints as she queues more than three hours to use Portchester pharmacy

Rowlands Pharmacy, in West Street, Portchester, remains open to serve the community during the national lockdown, but has suffered from queues on an almost daily basis, according to residents.

A 71-year-old woman queued for more than two hours before she collapsed, leaving her with a cut to the left side of her face and a black eye, on Thursday, March 26.

The woman, who asked not to be named, had been queuing since 10am when she fainted – and continued to queue until 2.50pm after being helped by passers-by.

The woman, who suffers from low blood pressure and a condition causing back pain, said: ‘At midday I wasn’t feeling so great, so I said to the woman next to me in the queue that I was going to sit down on a bench in the precinct.

‘When I got up, the next thing I knew, I collapsed.’

A couple passing-by helped the woman access the Portchester Health Centre – before the woman returned to her place in the queue.

She said: ‘A lovely man ran to the health centre and said I had hit my head, so I was taken in there and was examined.

‘When I came out, I was hoping I would be told that I could go straight into the pharmacy, but I just had to rejoin the queue.’

The woman, who has now recovered from the incident, said the fall left her so dazed that she did not think to approach the pharmacy’s staff to request a priority service.

The pharmacy has faced queues nearly every day, with some queues starting an hour before the store opens, according to Cheryl Coleman, manager at the Portchester Community Association.

She said: ‘They are under a huge amount of pressure, and they are getting this pressure on a daily basis.

‘On Bank Holiday Monday the pharmacy opened at 2pm – but people were queued up at 10am.’

In the first week of the lockdown, staff had been offering help to people in the queue – but this stopped due to the amount of abuse directed at them.

‘I do feel for them – they are getting a lot of angry reaction from members of the community.

‘They have had (staff) going down the line asking about prescriptions, but they got quite a lot of abuse so they stopped that.

‘There were some angry people who were shouting at them.’

Joining a national trend, the pharmacy has displayed in its window a drawing of a rainbow, with the message ‘stay home, save lives, protect the NHS’.

The Portchester Community Association is now offering to deliver prescriptions from the pharmacy to vulnerable residents, with the pharmacy allocating up to 16 deliveries a day.

The council has tried to work with the pharmacy to address the queuing issue, according to Councillor Trevor Cartwright, executive member for health and public protection.

He said: ‘The Council is aware that the pharmacy is under considerable pressure which is resulting in unacceptable waiting times for local residents; however, repeated attempts by both officers and Councillors to offer assistance, have been unsuccessful as Rowlands Pharmacy will not engage with us.’

A spokesman for the company said it was doing their ‘utmost’ to minimise waiting times.

He said: ‘We are extremely sorry to hear that someone fainted whilst waiting to pick up their medication.

‘The two-metre social distancing rule does unfortunately mean that queues are inevitable, but I hope members of the public understand and value the need for these measures.

‘In recent weeks, pharmacies have had to cope with a massive surge in demand for prescriptions and with access to GP surgeries and A&E departments restricted we have also seen more people visit their local pharmacy for healthcare support and advice.’

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