A County Durham NHS pharmacy has been sold off to new owners - with future plans for the facility now set out.
It was announced on Tuesday (April 30) that Moorside Pharmacy in Consett had been sold by specialist business property adviser, Christie & Co, for an undisclosed fee.
Moorside Pharmacy is a 30-hour community pharmacy that dispenses an average of 3,200 NHS items per month.
It shares a building with a small GP surgery in Moorside, 1.5 miles west of Consett in County Durham, on the eastern tip of the Pennines near the boundary of Northumberland.
It has been owned by Rachel Hurst since 1995 and was brought to market to allow her to downsize her operation and concentrate on her busier pharmacies – one in Consett and two in Crook.
Following a confidential sales process with Christie & Co, and with funding sourced through Craig Dickson at Christie Finance, the pharmacy has been purchased by locum pharmacist, Monju Miah.
He plans to run Moorside Pharmacy on a hands-on basis and promote additional services that will benefit the local population.
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Karl Clezy, Director of Pharmacy at Christie & Co, said: “Moorside Pharmacy mainly attracted interest from first-time buyers as it was priced at the more affordable end of the scale and presented an ideal opportunity for someone looking for more of a lifestyle business as it is only open 30 hours per week.
"Although limited trading hours, the pharmacy will still perform well as a business, benefiting from its location inside the surgery building.”
Craig Dickson, director at Christie Finance, added: “Monju is hugely experienced in the pharmacy sector. He will be very much hands-on within the pharmacy and is looking forward to forging closer links with the local community.
"Monju has been looking for a pharmacy for some time and views Moorside as an ideal opportunity to increase item numbers and services going forward.
“We continue to have great success in arranging funding within the pharmacy sector for both first-time buyers and experienced operators alike.”
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