Key Summary
- Staff walked out after months without support
- Patients were left facing disrupted care
- New owners promise to fix and restore services
A Jhoots Pharmacy branch in Abingdon, Oxfordshire has entered into administration after staff staged a walkout.
According to the Oxford Mail, the staff decided to down shutters last August after the bosses failed to keep in touch for months.
They left a note stating, “It is really hard trying to run a pharmacy without a pharmacist, or manager.”
Ian James and Rajnesh Mittal from the FRP Advisory have been appointed as joint administrators for the struggling business.
Jhoots branch in the Isle of Wight was officially removed from the NHS pharmaceutical list last July and 20 stores have been flagged for potential removal.
The most recent accounts on Companies House show that Jhoots had posted a pre-tax loss of over £5 million in the year ending December 2023.
According to the Pharmacy Defence Association, Jhoots owes over £870,000 in unpaid fees to locum professionals.
The troubled pharmacy chain, which earlier had over 150 outlets, had struggled to stay open in many parts of the country, depriving patients of their essential medicines.
MPs cutting across party lines had raised the issue in Parliament and care minister Stephen Kinnock had vowed to take action.
Allied Pharmacies, promoted by Sharief Group, had recently acquired 129 branches of Jhoots to its portfolio for an undisclosed sum.
The group said they plan to revive ailing pharmacies back to full operational capacity to safeguard patient care.
