“We don’t recognise the claims in today’s press which are not representative of the 60,000 colleagues who work for Boots UK and our commitment to developing healthcare further. The health and wellbeing of all our colleagues is, and always has been, a priority for the business.
 
“Offering the best care to patients is at the heart of everything we do and this includes offering pharmacy services that are relevant to the changing needs of patients and healthcare systems. Our pharmacists are empowered to use their professional judgment to assess the appropriateness of a clinical service, and we make it clear to our colleagues that these services should not be undertaken inappropriately.
 
“We strongly believe that community pharmacy today, more than ever, plays a vital role in supporting the UK health system. Boots has significantly increased its contribution to UK healthcare over the last decade and we have never been more committed to serving and helping patients. This is why in our group we also financially invest in this approach, through improved store and support infrastructure, technology,  training of pharmacy teams. We constantly look for ways to enable our pharmacists to have even more time to focus on delivering great care and we now dispense more than 220 million prescriptions every year in the UK.

"Over the last ten years, our group has continued to significantly re-invest profit right across Boots UK. We are absolutely clear that the drive for strong financial performance has  never been to the detriment of our constant priority on pharmacy, and delivering the best healthcare services in the communities we serve.”

Boots UK Spokesperson, 13 April 2016