SmithKline is central to the restructuring of the pharmaceutical industry that is going on at the moment. With a 2 percent share of prescription drugs they need to get bigger. But they are also the right size for some of the market leaders to find them attractive.

You need some sort of footprint on the ground.

Nobody really wants to go down this route and it is a case of who blinks first. There is a cast-iron rationale for maintaining a significant number of full-service branches and staffed offices.

Parents are not only missing out on up to £645 in lost growth, but they are robbing themselves of the opportunity to invest with the provider of their choice.