Morriston Jhoots Pharmacy crisis: staff unpaid for weeks and no pharmacist on site, says MP
Staff left without pay, patients without medicines
Mr Bell says he has been contacted by workers at the Morriston branch who have not received proper wages for nearly eight weeks. Despite being issued payslips, staff claim no pay was transferred in September at all.
The branch has also been without a dispensing pharmacist for more than seven weeks, leaving patients unable to access prescriptions. Staff report that even when prescriptions could be issued, shortages of common medicines meant many customers were still left empty‑handed.
One employee told Swansea Bay News the situation was “genuinely shocking” and warned it was pushing colleagues into debt and affecting their mental health.
A pattern across the UK
The problems in Morriston are not isolated. Across the UK, Jhoots staff and locum pharmacists have reported months of unpaid wages, sudden closures and empty shelves.
- In Grimsby, a branch was forced to close after staff were left waiting for wages, with employees across the region reportedly owed hundreds of thousands of pounds.
- Locum pharmacists working for Jhoots nationally are said to be owed around £670,000 in unpaid fees, according to the Pharmacists’ Defence Association.
- In parts of Wales, staff have described going more than two months without pay, while branches sat idle for weeks with no pharmacist and no stock delivered.
- MPs in Somerset, Sidmouth and North Somerset have all raised concerns after patients were left unable to collect prescriptions, with some calling for the chain to be stripped of its NHS contracts.
The picture that emerges is of a company struggling to meet its most basic obligations to staff and patients — a situation that has left neighbouring pharmacies overwhelmed as they try to pick up the slack.
From Lloyds to Jhoots
When Jhoots took over a number of former Lloyds branches in 2023, the move was initially seen as a way of safeguarding local pharmacy provision after Lloyds’ withdrawal from the high street.
But two years on, the Morriston crisis and similar reports elsewhere raise questions about whether Jhoots has been able to sustain that rapid expansion. What was once presented as a lifeline for communities now risks becoming a liability, with staff unpaid and patients left without vital medicines.
MP presses regulator and company directors
Mr Bell has raised the matter with the General Pharmaceutical Council, urging the regulator to consider enforcement action against both the company and its superintendent pharmacist.
He has also written to Jhoots’ directors, calling on them to step aside if they cannot guarantee continuity of service and job security for staff.
“Pharmacies are a vital cornerstone of communities, but Jhoots is letting our community down,” Mr Bell said. “This situation at the Morriston branch cannot continue – staff are being treated extremely poorly, and patients and service users are being failed.”
The MP is also liaising with the local health board to seek a resolution that protects both patients and employees.
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