Plans to give Flushing residents easier access to prescriptions could be derailed by pharmacies in Penryn and Falmouth which are worried about losing money.

The Trescobeas Surgery in Falmouth was recently granted consent to dispense prescriptions to its 328 patients based in Flushing - around half of the village's population of approximately 600 - but commercial pharmacies have appealed the decision.

The Trescobeas Surgery currently runs a branch at Mylor Surgery in Mylor Bridge, which is allowed to dispense to patients in Mylor but not in Flushing, meaning Flushing residents need to travel three miles to the nearest pharmacy in Penryn or take the Flushing Ferry to Falmouth to collect their prescriptions.

NHS guidelines state that applications should be refused if they are within 1.6 kilometres of a commercial pharmacy, but the committee which rules on consent for new pharmacies decided that while a pharmacy in Falmouth fell within that area "as the crow flies," the fact patients needed to cross the Carrick Roads counted as "exceptional circumstances" which would allow them to grant permission.

The original application had been opposed by Boots and Day Lewis pharmacies, and Cornwall Local Pharmaceutical Committee (LPC), which had claimed that to grant permission would "have an impact on the current providers of medication to the area," but did not supply any supporting evidence.

However the body which granted the application, the South West Pharmaceutical Services Regulations Committee, found that the pharmacies with lower dispensing rates had not objected, and said it was "not of the opinion that granting the application would prejudice the proper provision of relevant NHS services."

The committee also noted that the number of patients affected -and therefore the loss of custom to other pharmacies - would be "relatively small."

The report added: "The pharmacies in Penryn and Falmouth benefit from the presence of staff and students of Falmouth University, and would not suffer if Flushing residents were to obtain their medication elsewhere."

Yorick O'Nyons, practice manager at the Trescobeas Surgery, said he did not wish to comment on the appeal, however he called the decision to grant permission to dispense "really good news."

He said: "It's a victory for common sense, for patient choice, and for patient care."