Friday 17 August 2012

Pharmacy Travel Clinic

How PGDs will revolutionise private health in pharmacies 
Pharmacy services in the UK are changing. As disillusioned pharmacist turn away from ever decreasing NHS reimbursement, pharmacists are looking for new services to generate additional revenue streams. One of the fastest developing sectors are Patient Group Directions (PGDs).


But what is a PGD?
A patient group direction is a document which is authorised by a team of doctors, pharmacists and nurses which allows the supply of specified Prescription Only Medicines. A PGD specifies certain "Groups" of patients who can be given the medicines without a prescription. These protocols exclude the most vulnerable in society from treatment however this is only 1% of the populous. In general, dependent on which PGD is used, 99% of all patients will be included in treatment.
This poses a huge opportunity for pharmacies to specialise in certain fields. For instance patients have always been able to go to tehir pharmacy and purchase products like Regaine (Minoxidil) or Alpecin for hair loss. With the use of PGDs pharmacists can supply oral medicines such as Propecia - which is the most effective adgrogenetic alopecia (male pattern baldness).
The biggest opportunity which has emerged in recent years is patientgroupdirection.com is now offering pharmacists the ability to create their own independent Travel Clinic in their pharmacy. Called the "Travel Core" it authorises the same Travel Health service that you would find in any independent travel clinic or GP surgery. Pharmacists working under the Travel Core PGDs have been report yearly profits of between £10-30K which is a large return for the initial investment.

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