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A locum agency has claimed a pharmacy in Oxfordshire failed to pay for shifts and at one point owed 20 locums it booked to work there a combined £22,000.

Team Locum’s operations manager Mark Blackburn told Independent Community Pharmacist it started booking shifts at Ahmeys Pharmacy in Coker Close, Bicester, in September 2024 but stopped working with them in April this year when they became aware the pharmacy was not paying locums.

Blackburn said it booked 150 shifts between 20 locums at Ahmeys Pharmacy during that eight-month period and alleged one locum was owed £9,000. He said the last time Ahmeys Pharmacy paid her was on June 13 this year when she received £800.

She told Team Locum she was trying to claim the money owed to her through her insurance and Blackburn said his agency advised other locums to do the same.

Allegations of unpaid locum fees at Ahmeys Pharmacy emerged as Ahmeys Limited, trading as Ahmeys Late Night Pharmacy, went into administration last month. ICP understands Ahmeys Limited at one point owned Ahmeys Pharmacy. According to Companies House, Ahmeys Limited’s sole director is Nisar Ahmad.

Last month, This Is Oxfordshire reported Ahmeys Pharmacy was “no longer associated with Ahmeys Limited having been sold off more than a year ago” and added Ahmeys Limited “does not operate in Bicester anymore having merged with a separate business”. ICP tried to contact Ahmad but got no response.

Unanswered questions for former Ahmeys Limited director

However, ICP has seen an email sent by a former director of Ahmeys Limited Faheem Ahmed on August 5 this year to Team Locum sales director Mitch Smith telling him his “client” was offering to sell a 49 per cent ownership stake in Ahmeys Pharmacy for £225,000.

In his email, Ahmed said the investment “secures a share” of the pharmacy’s “profits and decision-making processes”. He resigned as a director of Ahmeys Limited in January 2025.

When asked whether he owned Ahmeys Pharmacy during the period when locums were allegedly not being paid, who the client he referred to in his email was, why he approached Smith in an attempt to generate fresh investment in Ahmeys Pharmacy and why locums had apparently not received payment, Ahmed did not respond.

When asked if it had been approached by Ahmed to sell Ahmeys Pharmacy, Christie & Co said it was unable to comment.

Last month, ICP reported that Team Locum considered legal action against the pharmacy chain Allcures, which has more than 40 branches in England, after alleging it failed to pay locums in full.