{"id":468419,"date":"2026-03-10T21:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T21:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/468419\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T21:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T21:02:16","slug":"irate-locals-left-reeling-as-they-face-60-mile-drive-to-get-their-medicine-after-only-pharmacy-closes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/468419\/","title":{"rendered":"Irate locals left reeling as they face 60 MILE drive to get their medicine after only pharmacy closes"},"content":{"rendered":"

By ANNA WRIGHT, US REPORTER<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 21:06 EDT, 9 March 2026 | Updated: 21:29 EDT, 9 March 2026 <\/p>\n

West Coast locals are outraged after the only pharmacy in their neighborhood closed, forcing them to travel more than 60 miles to fill their prescriptions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gualala, California<\/a>, has become a ‘pharmacy desert’ after its last remaining pharmacy, Genoa Healthcare, closed in November 2025.<\/p>\n

Genoa is the fourth drugstore to shut down in the city over the past 12 years,\u00a0the Mendocino Voice reported.<\/a><\/p>\n

A Facebook<\/a> post from July 2025 explained that Genoa would have to shut its doors unless it could find a full-time pharmacist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘The next closest pharmacy is 60 miles away,’ the post read.<\/p>\n

As more brick-and-mortar pharmacies close, many locals have turned to prescription delivery services, having their medications sent directly to their homes.<\/p>\n

Resident Robyn Cota Cann told the outlet she had enough of mail-order prescriptions after finding her medication melted on her doorstep.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cann said she now drives two hours to Santa Rose for her prescriptions, bringing ice packs to keep them cool on the way back.<\/p>\n

\"Site <\/p>\n

Site of the Mendocino Coast Pharmacy (now closed) in Gualala, California, where the area is now a ‘pharmacy desert’<\/p>\n

\"Facebook <\/p>\n

Facebook post from July 2025 offering a job to a pharmacist who can relocate to Gualala<\/p>\n

She said she is lucky that she is able to make the commute back-and-forth, telling the outlet: ‘I\u00a0don\u2019t know what I would do if I had something really serious, and I couldn\u2019t go to Santa Rosa.’<\/p>\n

Unsure how this lack of medication access will affect her and her husband, she said she may have to leave the area in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A major factor contributing to the drugstore staffing shortage is the lack of available housing in the coastal area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many users on the previous Facebook post said the cost of living is too high for people to move.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One person even wrote that they had a pharmacist friend who was interested but took a job inland because the cost of living in Mendocino County was too high.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Michael Murphy, senior advisor at the American Pharmacists Association, told the outlet that each small-town pharmacy closure creates problems for the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Murphy explained that once a drugstore closes, workers lose their jobs and are more likely to move away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This makes it even harder for the area to find healthcare workers if a new pharmacy opens later.<\/p>\n

\"Scenic <\/p>\n

Scenic view overlooking the Gualala River converging with the Pacific Ocean with the town of Gualala in the distance<\/p>\n

‘There is definitely concern that as we see more pharmacies close \u2026 that you lose the health care professionals that were living in those communities, serving those communities, because there\u2019s no longer a place of employment for them,’ he told the outlet.<\/p>\n

New policies, like the Rural Health Transformation program, aim to breathe life back into struggling small-town health care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Created under President Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the program is investing $50 billion over five years to strengthen rural health care nationwide.<\/p>\n

The blue state received over $200 million through the program,\u00a0but how it will help communities on Mendocino\u2019s south coast is still a question.<\/p>\n

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