Concerns were raised at the Annan Community Council meeting this week regarding both of the Lloyds Pharmacy sites at Rose Street and the High Street.
Members noted that customers are often being forced to wait in a queue outside, sometimes for hours, before they are able to collect their prescription.
Community Councillor Neil Carruthers said: “It has been ongoing for some time, they (Lloyds) had gave us assurance that they had sorted it and were on top of it, but they clearly haven’t. I was there a couple of weeks ago and there were people queuing for hours, coming away empty handed.
“With winter coming there are people waiting outside for several hours in the cold.”
Lloyds attribute staff shortages as the root cause of the disruption and say that they are working hard to fix issues at their High Street store.
However, they declined to comment on the queues at Rose Street and on a further claim made at the community council meeting that this branch is earmarked for closure.
A spokesperson for LloydsPharmacy said: “Due to staff shortages, there have been disruptions at our LloydsPharmacy at 37 High Street, Annan. Our customers are very important to us and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.
“We have an action plan in place to make improvements at this branch as quickly as possible. We have successfully recruited two new team members. We are actively recruiting a full-time pharmacist, and we are working together with other community pharmacy operators and the NHS to address the sector-wide workforce challenges.”
Asked about Rose Street, the spokesperson added: “We haven’t got anything further to add.”
