A Swindon pharmacy has sparked outrage among its customers after introducing delivery charges.

Home Ground Pharmacy, on Thames Avenue, will charge its customers £40 per year for deliveries - having previously run the service for free.

Derek Ohanlon has lived in Swindon for 15 years and has been using Home Ground Pharmacy for the last decade.

“With the cost of living crisis, the fact that the deliveries are now being charged is disgusting,” he said.

On top of the new annual fee, customers will also have to pay an extra £4.95 every time they would like to order another prescription on top of the scheduled once a month delivery.

“I have been getting deliveries from there throughout the Covid pandemic, but I have chosen to opt out now,” revealed Mr Ohanlon.

The 56-year-old says it has been made worse by the fact the introduction of fees hasn't been officially announced to customers - and that he only found out when a courier told him on a delivery.

“I think it is a disgrace because they haven’t told anyone,” remarked Mr Ohanlon.

“It seems like hardly anyone knows about it as there was no charge before.”

The pharmacy was taken over by new owners earlier this year and the new pricing system will be in place from December onwards.

Other Swindonians are unsurprised by the news, including Lorraine Tilston-Brookes, 57, of Hayden Wick.

“Being a disabled military veteran, I am on some strong meds that you cannot just stop taking. Missing a single day’s dose can cause great problems,” she said.

“I would be told that there was a supply issue, and they could send it back to the spine if I wanted to try another pharmacy, but it was strange how other pharmacies never had the so-called supply issues.”

The last straw came for Ms Tilston-Brookes when her controlled drugs, which are a special order that pharmacies don't carry as routine stock, plus one other item never arrived.

“I still hadn't been told when delivery would be and yet again was down to my last day, so I called the pharmacy three times and finally got a reply,” she explained.

“My controlled drugs were in but not the other item as they had supply issues, so I asked what they were doing, and they said I could have the controlled drugs but wait for the others.”

“If not wait, I was told to go elsewhere for all of it. The staff at Home Ground not just don't care and are in an absolute mess.”

Home Ground has not responded to the Adver's request for comment at the time of writing.