digital

Electronic prescription service expected across Wales this autumn

Welsh health minister Eluned Morgan said implementation will need private sector companies to develop the software.

Pharmacies across England lack digital resources, reveals study

Over half of pharmacies experience at least one IT shutdown each month

IT and the changing face of pharmacy practice

Information technology has proved to be a great enabler during the coronavirus pandemic. Now the falling cost of robotics and the use of ‘big data’ looks set to change the face of pharmacy practice.

Alphega launches repeat prescriptions app

Alphega Pharmacy has launched an app to help its members offer an online repeat prescription service to their patients.

Well launches delivery site for OTC products

Well Pharmacy says it has begun delivering some OTC medicines and other non-prescribed healthcare products to patients’ homes through a new online shopping site.

COVID-19: Scottish pharmacists given access to emergency care data

Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in Scotland are to be given access to emergency care summary data.

Boots partners with private electronic prescriptions provider

Boots UK is partnering with online GP consultation provider Doctor Care Anywhere (DCA) in a London pilot.

Alliance Healthcare launches new online ordering service

Wholesaler Alliance Healthcare has launched a new digital service to help customers order products online.

Well to dispense 43 million prescriptions from central hub

Well Pharmacy expects to dispense about 43.2 million prescriptions annually via a central hub based in Stoke-on-Trent.

Locum app secures 1m in growth funding

The team behind an online job booking platform for locum healthcare professionals have secured £1m in equity funding.

Boots trials in-store GP video service

Boots UK has begun trialling an in-store video service giving patients access to GP consultations.

GP video consultations set to mushroom

Nearly 2 million more NHS patients in England will have access to video consultations with a doctor.

Quicker access to SCRs for community pharmacies

Pharmacists in England can now access patient information more quickly through a new Summary Care Record (SCR) 1-click function.

Insight: PMR systems not fit for purpose

My mobile phone network knows that unless it keeps me happy I can easily (well, quite easily) move to another network. The same cannot be said about PMR systems.

It is very difficult to move to another supplier – particularly when the big companies provide pretty much the same offering in terms of price, service and technology. I just don’t get any sense that they view pharmacies as customers, and they seem to have little interest in the way that our businesses are changing.

Unless we can find a way to change this dynamic, the gap between what our technology can do, and what we want it to do, will grow and grow. This could potentially be crippling to pharmacy businesses in an age when customers are increasingly chasing digital by default and struggle to engage with analog pharmacy systems.

Co-op to "disrupt" prescriptions market with app

The Co-op said it plans to "disrupt" healthcare and grow the online prescription market as it launched a new app that is available to its 4.6 million members.

Insight: Driving me mad

By Alexander Humphries*

Our main wholesaler has now missed four afternoon deliveries in a fortnight. Twenty per cent of our deliveries have failed to arrive as a result. Our business, like every other pharmacy, relies on a just-intime supply chain, meaning that when things go wrong it immediately causes us a problem. Work starts to back up and patients are kept waiting for their medicines.

When we complain to the driver, he tells us that the reason he misses us out is that his employer will not pay him overtime in order to complete his deliveries. This is unbelievable as we’re talking about a multi-billionpound organisation here, but it just shows, if true, how much contempt there is for us as customers.