In the rural Hilltowns, where independence is a way of life, the closing this month of the only pharmacy serving some of the region’s smallest communities came with a sense of sadness for many and concern for others.
Williamsburg Pharmacy’s shuttering is part of a trend over the last decade of small pharmacies closing or being gobbled up by larger retail chains at alarming rates. Between 2009 and 2015, one in eight pharmacies — or 9,654 — closed, according to a JAMA Internal Medicine study published last fall. Independent pharmacies in both cities and rural areas were three times more likely to close than chain pharmacies, the study found.
The reasons are numerous, but in a nutshell, declining reimbursement rates have taken a toll on mom-and-pop shops. In other cases, owners of independent shops are looking to phase out of the long work weeks as they age. That appears to be the case for Williamsburg Pharmacy owners Greg and Carol Conz. It’s hard, dedicated work that they’ve been doing for 34 years.
“I am 68 years old, and working seven days a week for 12 hours a day was getting to be a little too much,” Greg told the Gazette last week.
While the Conzes had hoped to sell to an independent or small chain pharmacy business, CVS was the only offer they had in hand. Who can blame them for selling the prescription portion of their business to the retail giant last summer? Some 1,600 households are now being sent to the closest CVS store on King Street in Northampton.
For Elaine Ulman, whose letter to the editor can be read on this page today, that means driving some 30 miles round trip to have her prescriptions filled instead of four miles to Williamsburg Pharmacy on her hometown’s Main Street.
Other customers told the Gazette that they are upset about the pharmacy’s closing, not only for the inconvenience but also for the loss of an expert in their backyard. Many Hilltown residents said the community pharmacy was the only place they got medical prescriptions and a host of other supplies.
The pattern has played out throughout the country in recent years. Some 630 rural communities that had at least one independent, chain or franchise retail pharmacy in 2003 had none by March 2018, according to statistics from the RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis. In addition to traveling far to fill prescriptions, residents in these areas often end up turning to mail-order prescriptions and losing out on the ability to ask questions in person about taking medications safely.
But there still a few independent pharmacies in the region, including Serio’s Pharmacy in Northampton, Amherst Pharmacy in Amherst, Center Pharmacy in Granby and Deerfield Pharmacy in Deerfield. On a larger scale, but not the size of retail giants like CVS and Walgreens, are pharmacies in grocery stores like Big Y and Stop & Shop.
Maybe the best prescription is to frequent these pharmacies as often as one can.