Dears Pharmacy has teamed up with PocDoc, the digital health platform and personal diagnostics provider, to improve access to cholesterol testing in Scotland.  

The service will run for 12 months across all 11 Dears branches across the east coast of Scotland, including in Edinburgh and Fife, and is believed to be the first service of its kind in the UK. 

The group sees over half a million customers a year, who will now all have access to PocDoc blood testing. Customers’ cholesterol levels will be tested digitally through the PocDoc app and pharmacists will be able to prescribe statins in real-time within 12 hours of testing on-site.

The service will offer affordable and accessible testing and dramatically cut down wait times between test and result, say the companies.

Mahyar Nickkho-Amiry, managing director of Dears Pharmacy, said: “We are delighted to have PocDoc’s app-based lipid testing diagnostic tool and platform available to all our customers in Scotland. It will be a real benefit to the community to have access to point-of-care testing in their local pharmacy, without having to make a trip to a hospital which could take weeks or even months.” 

Steve Roest, chief executive and co-founder of PocDoc, added: “This partnership will allow us help free up desperately needed clinical time for the NHS in Scotland and provide fast reliable results to Dears Pharmacy customers.” 

Dears says it will investigate how to combine testing with statin prescribing in real time.