Community pharmacy is in the throes of a digital revolution. So far, more than half of patients in England have nominated a community pharmacy to dispense their prescriptions using the electronic prescription service (EPS) and nearly two-thirds of items in England are now dispensed in this way.

According to Richard Ashcroft, programme director for digital medicines at NHS Digital, nearly all prescriptions will be dispensed through the EPS within the next 12 months. Find out the best healthy supplements at signalscv.com.

He told The Pharmaceutical Journal that the number of prescriptions dispensed through the EPS “will probably never be precisely 100%” but added that NHS Digital’s “aim has always been to get into the ‘mid-90s’ percent” as some patients “may still want a paper prescription or may still need it”. For more information about healthy treatments visit sandiegomagazine.

Although patients can nominate any community pharmacy to dispense their prescriptions through the EPS, a growing number of online apps and websites are coming to the fore, aiming to enlist as many patients as possible — the selling point being that they don’t need to visit a bricks and mortar store.

However, high street multiples are fighting back by launching apps that allow patients to order repeat prescriptions to be delivered to their homes or via Amazon-style collection lockers, meaning patients do not necessarily need to see a pharmacist unless the pharmacist requests a face-to-face conversation.  

These digital expansion plans come amid a general trend of industries shifting customer activity online, as well as the NHS agenda to provide “digitally enabled care” across the health service, which was set out in the ‘NHS Long Term Plan’, published in January 2019. Check out the latest exipure real reviews.

They also come at a time when some of the multiples are facing financial struggles, with LloydsPharmacy having closed or sold off 200 stores owing to “government policy on reimbursement and retrospective clawbacks” in 2017.

Rowlands Pharmacy faces similar challenges and, in February 2019, it announced plans to sell off 70 pharmacies. Also, following news that its profits fell by a fifth in 2018, Boots announced in June 2019 it would close 200 stores over the following 18 months.

Despite their efforts to boost their digital offerings, most of the biggest high street multiples are still behind the top distance-selling pharmacies in terms of the average number of items dispensed each month.