Sunday 28 September 2014

Predicting the Future of UK Community Pharmacy

Okay what do we know...

  • NHS is overburdened, its in huge debt, if something gives the whole thing will come down.
  • There is an ageing population which needs to be cared for, even more burden on the NHS and social care.
  • As of 2012 they are moving lots of services into the private sector and the NHS is footing the bill.
So where does community pharmacy fit into this?

Firstly, the current community pharmacy model is extremely inefficient. The government is essentially paying for pharmacy graduates to put labels on boxes. A lot of the work a high street community pharmacy does can be outsourced and have medicines delivered to the patient's door which is extremely useful in light of the ageing population.

Its not to say that there won't be room for traditional community pharmacies on the high street but it definitely means there will be less. Currently, there is an explosion of "distance pharmacy" contracts opening up, in Islington we already have three new contracts. A lot of pharmacists do not even understand what a "distance pharmacy" is. Basically, it is a pharmacy without a shop front. They make sense as retail from pharmacy is dead, dependent on where you are you would be lucky to clear £200 profit on retail in a day.

Distance pharmacy owners know this, they operate out of low rent offices (I have seen one in a portacabin in a carpark), significantly lowering overheads and they can easily upscale. One online pharmacy I visited had 8 ACTs and 12 assistants and one pharmacist. They pushed through 50k Rx a week.

So in light of this, what hope does your average community pharmacy have?

Is the glass half empty or half full? Whenever, in any industry there is disruption in the market, the businesses which survive are those which diversify out of the traditional model and enter a niche. So what will pharmacy look like in 10 years?
  • There will be more Independent prescribers and PGDs will become more established. Pharmacy will become a convenient triage system between themselves and doctors/hospitals.
  • There will be more private, easy to access services from pharmacy, which significantly reduces secondary care burden.
  • The majority of prescriptions will be electronic, there will be an establishment of large online pharmacies which patients can easily elect to receive their prescriptions and have their medicines delivered straight to their door.
  • As more low cost pharmacies come to fruition, as they have lower overheads this will inevitably effect the global sum which will decrease even though more medicines are being prescribed.
  • Pharmacists will be more involved in preventative healthcare. The NHS has established that to prevent is better to cure, and a damn sight cheaper. As their is a pharmacist on every high street in the UK, patients will present with portable biometric data for the pharmacist to interpret. For instance a patient comes in and shows the pharmacist their real time data on their BM, BP, Weight, HR, Pedometry and the pharmacist offer tailored advice.
The issue is that pharmacists are happy with what they are doing and do not want to disrupt the status quo. They would rather hide under a stone and weather the storm, however, its not a storm, its a change in climate. Its good news for new pharmacists, with fresh clinical skills, as they can move dynamically, embrace technology and show what a pharmacist can really do. However, as for the majority of independents pharmacists who own their own businesses and ultimately hold the power, this is the real rate limiting step to the progression of the profession.

Pick up the pace or walk away.

No comments:

Post a Comment