Supermarket Asda has announced the closure of seven in-store pharmacies this week, including one in County Durham.

The retail giant will dispense the last prescriptions from its Seaham store’s chemist on Thursday.

It comes after a consultation was launched in January on plans to close seven of its 254 in-store pharmacy branches.

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Asda said it had made the decision due to the Seaham chemist running at a loss for several years.

A spokesperson for the supermarket said: “Despite the best efforts of our hard-working colleagues, these pharmacies have been running at a loss for a number of years so unfortunately following a period of consultation we have decided to close them.

“We recognise this will be a difficult time for our pharmacy colleagues at these stores and we are in discussions with all of them to support them through this process, we will do all we can to find alternate roles.”

The closure of the seven Asda pharmacies is expected to affect 48 hourly-paid colleagues and 14 pharmacists, according to reports in The Sun.

It comes after Lloyds closed around 230 pharmacies based in Sainsbury’s supermarkets back in June.

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Here is the full list of stores closing:

  • Adel
  • Blackburn
  • Feltham
  • Seaham
  • Southampton
  • West Bradford
  • Weston-Super-Mare