I read this story with some shock, as me and the wife get our prescriptions from our local Lloyds at Sainsburys. We were with Boots in the town previously, but they kept getting our stuff wrong, or there was some problem, so we changed our supplier for the better. Now it seems, we are back with Boots when Lloyds folds. What a pain!! 
We had a few problems with our Lloyds - often out of stock, some items were simply not available, and a couple times they mislaid things. We have since moved to new pharmacy and has been excellent. It is a bit longer to walk but it is just a few doors down from the vet so we can do it in both visits.
The closures come about seven years after Sainsburyâs supermarket sold its then 281-store pharmacy business to Celesio, the owner of Lloyds Pharmacy, for ÂŁ125m. The pharmacy chain was bought last year by the investment firm Aurelius, which also recently acquired the sports fashion retailer Footasylum.
I worry about the way that basic essential services, such as pharmacies / dispensing chemists can become part of multiple retail businesses and can be sold off Willy Nilly as a part of a business venture.
When I lived 5 miles down the road from where I live now, I was able to collect prescription medication from my GP surgery pharmacy - I saw the GP, got issued with a prescription and called at the dispensary to collect my medication, all in the same visit, with a waiting time of maybe 5 or 10 minutes while they made up my Prescription.
Since I moved house, Iâm still with the same GP but I now live only a 5 minute walk from the GP Surgery. I am no longer allowed to use the GP Surgeryâs dispensing pharmacy - instead, I have to go to the Well Pharmacy which is in the building adjoining the GP Surgery - I usually have to wait a couple of days for the GPâs prescription to be electronically winged across to the Pharmacy next door, and await a text message from them to say it is ready to collect.
Progress? I think not.
The Well Pharmacy seem to be competent but it seems bonkers to me that some folk can collect their medication from the GP Surgery while others have to go to an independent private business to collect their medication.
Maybe itâs time for a grand overhaul of this patchy public / private enterprise!!
We had 2 Lloydâs pharmacies in our area one attached to our doctors surgery but both closed 3 weeks ago. I had no problems with my repeat prescriptions, always ready when I needed them. A local pharmacy have taken over the premises but now I have to reorder my prescriptions every time.
I deliver for an independent Pharmacy, it has been very lucrative for the past ten years, Lloyds have screwed up on many occasions. 
I was with a Co-op pharmacy for years, but they changed to Be Well (or some such a similar name) several years ago
That was fine for a few years but then they, too changed - another slightly similar name, canât quite remember, possibly just Well, and after that it was a disaster -
All the old staff went, including the manager, the new setup has hopeless -
Different staff almost every time I called, delays, items missing, and so on
And it wasnât just me that had problems, there were complaints from other customers
Eventually I left and transferred to Lloyds at my local Sainsbury
So far that has been OK, but it looks like Iâll have to find another place again
My local Lloyds seems a law unto itself although it wasnât their fault that doctors surgeries in my area stopped pharmacies automatically ordering our prescriptions for us.
They seem to change their opening hours regularly,manage to lose prescriptions the doctors insist have been sent( happened to me four times now)and insist those of us on six month prescriptions tell them each month when we want them made up.
Why they canât do this automatically I have no idea.
And since they seem reluctant to answer the phone I now go into the pharmacy to ask them to do thisâŚand then it is a three day wait.
I could use Boots( my sister does after getting fed up with Lloyds) but they are in town not a three minute walk away.
But I am considering my options when my current prescription runs out in March.
The independent I work for is overrun with customers, antibiotics etc are always delivered the same day, no waiting days here although it makes my day more complicated. 
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My one and only trial of Lloyds was a disaster as not a single item on a multi item script was on the shelves. Iâm now with a small independent chemist who are not only utterly reliable, they also do everything electronically AND deliver. All I have to do is either e-mail my repeat request or phone and they do the rest with my doc. If my doc issues a new item, that is sent to electronically to the chemist and they deliver it to me.
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Yep, the independents are not tied up in deals with the big Pharma companies like Lloyds are so, can source items from any supplier.
I used to get my repeat prescriptions from Lloydâs and they were great.
Then it startedâŚnever had the items and they had to order them.
Send me a text to say my prescription was ready to be collected. Iâd go in there to collect it and theyâd say, âIt hasnât been made up yet, so lâd have to sit and wait whilst they did it.
Missing items that had been ordered. They blamed the surgery. Iâd then go to the surgery to see what had happened and they blamed the chemist!
The good thing about them was l never had to request my repeat prescription. It was all done between the surgery and the Chemist. It was effortless. I just collected it every 56 days after they texted me to say it was ready.
Then a few months ago, Lloyds stopped that service and you had to request the items yourself.
I have now changed to another chemist that does not belong to a chain and they have been wonderful.
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I thought Lloydâs had slid off the High Street and gone out of business years ago.
I use Well pharmacy who get Mr Mâs prescriptions from the GP, (next door) , electronically and send me a text to pick them up.
They always get it wrong ⌠last month they gave me 4 months tablets in one go.
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We used to use Lloyds Pharmacies. They were reasonably local to us but their service went down the hill - in a big way. Weldricks is a little further for us but they are excellent. A day or so we had a prescription from my doctor. Weldricks is just a few doors from our doc and they had my prescription in stock. Job done.
Discovered this morning that my local Lloyds is being taken over by another pharmacy.
Donât know which one but Iâm hoping itâs Boots or a local independent one,which my Lloyds once was.
My Lloyds in Eastleigh Sainsburys, closes on April 23rd. I spoke to the chemist about it, and he said you can either chose another outlet, or have Royal Mail deliver your medicines. Not sure if there is a postage charge if that option is taken. Iâll probably go with Boots, as there is a small pharmacy just outside Sainsburys. The main Boots in the town centre is very unreliable. 
Lloyds got to big for their own âBootsâ. 
The thing that surprises me is the amount of people who actually need a prescription.
Itâs a huge businessâŚI think I trained in the wrong job when I left schoolâŚ
Do we really need to be so dependent on medication?
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Foxy, I deliver some massive bags.
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Someone is making a great deal of money from our health issues SpittyâŚ
Iâm doing all right from it, but I acknowledge what you mean Foxy, we are all in the danger zone and, is it just the pills that are holding back the flood.
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