Demise of Pharmacy PGD

It is probably no surprise to you that PharmacyPGD.co.uk seems to have gone out of business. On the front page of their site it states:


We have done a little bit of research and pulled up some articles from the Chemist and Druggist, namely:

http://www.chemistanddruggist.co.uk/news/pharmacy-pgd-closes-down-reasons-beyond-control

In the article, it goes on to explain, not very much. Essentially, it seems like they have closed their doors due to unforeseen circumstance. In the wider community pharmacy arena there is much speculation on the topic.

MASTA Pharmacy Travel Clinic

We have been contacted a lot recently about the new MASTA travel clinic sales team targeting community pharmacies to purchase their pharmacy travel clinic solution. We have drilled down into MASTA travel clinic costs and found its pretty expensive....

• £100 online training fee 
• £555 live training fee incl YF £18 per referred traveller ( MASTA take a further 320 consultation fee from the traveller) 
• £35 per month for the PGDs =£420 
• £11 per medical helpline consultation 
• Also you cannot benefit from the Sanofi discount scheme as you have to buy from MASTA wholesale

In practice, based on their minimum prediction: 

If you do a minimum of 4 travellers per week, over the year this is = 4 x £18 x 52 = £3744 

So with the initial costs involved in set up the Total cost of MASTA solution in year one is

£3744 + £100 + £555 + £420 = £4819 

+ extra expense of buying vaccines through MASTA 

+ expensive clinical support.

So pretty dear overall. Our solution for independent pharmacist run travel clinics costs, £2,000:

• You are completely independent but we help you with all of your marketing and online SEO
• You can buy from any supplier, we have negotiated discounts for you
• There are no hidden extra costs for consultations or clinical support

Doctors letter about Travel Clinics

Below is a letter we have drafted for our members to send to their local doctors and medical service. It would be a good idea to customise it and take it personally down to them.

To whom it may concern,

We have just started a new PGD authorised Travel Service at our pharmacy. 

We can now administer most major vaccines including:

• Hep A
• Hep B
• DTP
• Typhoid
• Rabies
• Meningitis
• Cholera
• Japanese Encephalitis

In addition to this we now offer all types of antimalarials (including PoMs), including:

• Malarone
• Malarone Paediatric
• Doxycycline
• Lariam
• Chloroquine
• Paludrine

We hope to work with you to maintain excellent travel health services in our area.

All our appointments are walk-in or booked appointments (patients can call our regular pharmacy number). Our lead pharmacist who is fully trained and PGD authorised works full time so any urgent requirements by patients could be easily referred.

We also have the ability to request bespoke PGDs from our authorising multidisciplinary team, if there are any other areas we could help you with we would be more than willing to help.

Attached is a letter detailing our service to patients who would like more information.

Kindest regards,

Hi,

Our pharmacy has now started a new Travel Service available for your convenience. If you are travelling abroad, why not pop in and ask one of our friendly staff what you wold need. Advice is completely impartial and you wont be charged a consultation fee.

We can now administer most travel vaccines including:

• Hep A
• Hep B
• DTP
• Typhoid
• Rabies
• Meningitis
• Cholera
• Japanese Encephalitis

These vaccines are especially useful if you find yourself travelling outside of Europe to places like Asia, South America or Africa.

In addition to this we now offer all types of antimalarials (including PoMs), including:

• Malarone
• Malarone Paediatric
• Doxycycline
• Lariam
• Chloroquine
• Paludrine

These medicines are extremely useful if you are travelling to any endemic country such as parts of Africa, Asia and South America.

If you have any queries about our service just give us a call on our regular pharmacy number. If you would like to know more about travel advice for specific locations have a look at:

http://www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk/

Hope to see you soon!