A PHARMACY has apologised after people were left waiting in queues for several hours to collect medicine.

Lloyds Pharmacy says staff at its Bridport branch are working ‘harder than ever’ to ensure everyone has the medicine they need.

It comes after some residents claimed they waited more than five hours in queues to collect their prescriptions on different days last week.

One resident, aged in their 70s, said they experienced problems getting their prescription due to ‘very long queues’ with a five-hour waiting time, and claimed that, on occasion, at the end of that time they couldn’t be seen.

The resident said: “The queues are due to the fact many people are, very generously, collecting up to 10 prescriptions for other people, often with many items in each.”

A spokesman for Lloyds Pharmacy said: “We’re extremely sorry to hear that customers have experienced delays when waiting for their prescriptions at our Bridport pharmacy.

“We are working with Bridport Medical Surgery to encourage family and friends collecting prescriptions on behalf of others to only collect prescriptions for a maximum of 2-3 patients to help keep queues to a minimum.

“Our frontline colleagues are working harder than ever to ensure people have the medicines they need, and we kindly ask our customers and patients to bear with us during these extraordinary circumstances.”