Subject to planning permission, St Chad's Surgery, in Midsomer Norton, could soon have an adjoining Lloyds Pharmacy.
Rather than have three pharmacies in the town, should permission be granted, it will most likely mean that one of the town's existing facilities would close. The new pharmacy would be built towards the left-hand side of the doctor's surgery, towards the river, with the thirteen spaces currently allocated for staff and doctors to move towards the back of the site, opening up extra spaces for patients.
Charles Richardson, Practice Manager at St Chad's, said: "The idea of having a new pharmacy facility next to the doctor's surgery aims to improve patient care, with better communication between doctors and pharmacy staff. The ability to have such a facility on site will give us quite an advantage in patient care, very much like the Elm Hayes site, in Paulton. It will spread workloads for staff and will mean there will be a continuous flow of scripts. It should improve the service.
"The new plans should also increase parking for patients, not lessen it, including better parking for disabled patients."
A planning application has now been submitted and subject to permission, the new pharmacy could be open between December this year and January 2015. The latest completion is expected is March 2015. The move comes after the idea was initially investigated by Lloyds nine years ago. The surgery since reapproached the proposal, saying it hopes the plans will offer 'Better, integrated care'.