Online distance dispenser Pharmacy2U claims it has delivered 90 per cent more items to patients’ homes during the Covid-19 pandemic than in previous years.

A July 20 statement from the company said that since the first lockdown began in 2020 it has delivered more than 17 million items, a “90 per cent increase from the same time frame in the previous period”.

Pharmacy2U claims that since March 2020 it has helped prevent seven million “unnecessary trips outside for vulnerable members of society” through arranging deliveries.

As of July 31, the company continues to have the highest number of electronic prescription nominations in England at 624,615, although nearest competitor LloydsDirect (previously Echo) has come some way towards closing the gap during the pandemic and now has 517,102 EPS nominations.

The company says it has halved the time it takes from ordering a repeat prescription to delivering it from 10 days to five, with 90 per cent dispatched within three days of the order being placed.

P2U says it has vaccinated over 620,000 people against Covid-19 since January 2021, working across 25 sites including cinemas, supermarket carparks and hotels. It plans to build on this by offering NHS flu vaccinations from August onwards.