The Catlins Pharmacy in Owaka may stay open, because the Southern District Health Board is no longer insisting it open five days a week.
The pharmacy's owners had decided the only way for the business to be viable and legal was to change its status from a pharmacy to a depot operating five days a week from April 4, but DHB advice yesterday has changed that.
The business has been under pressure to change the way it operates because it is not allowed to hold two different licences on the same premises.
The pharmacy offers a pharmacist on-site service for three days a week and a depot service on a fourth day.
One of the three owners, Margo Roxburgh, said she could not speak for the others at this stage but it was most likely they would compile information on options and present them to a community meeting so people could say what they preferred.
Mrs Roxburgh said that while the matter was still not settled, she was "really happy" that the district health board was being flexible about the opening days.
The possibilities likely to be canvassed are operating as a pharmacy, with a pharmacist on site, for three or four days a week, or as a depot for five days with a pharmacy technician, who could get telephone advice from a pharmacist.
With a depot arrangement, prescriptions prepared by the Elwyn Bates Pharmacy in Balclutha would be delivered twice daily for collection by patients.
Mrs Roxburgh said that because the business was permitted to hold only a pharmacy licence or a depot licence, there could be no mixing of the roles.
If the business moved to a depot service, the pharmacist in Owaka would be employed at the pharmacy in Balclutha and there would be no job losses.
Mrs Roxburgh said she hoped the future arrangements for the business would be in place by April 4.
