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You may also be surprised at what an external observer can identify that will change the pharmacy business dynamic

Rather than buy in a business service piecemeal it may be better to think of the business as a whole, writes Charles Gladwin

NHS England’s current drive to ease the pressure on general practice has resulted in significant and widespread backing for increasing community pharmacy’s role in primary care. But if you feel that you are already too busy with your business to take up this unprecedented opportunity, you should consider bringing in outside support.

Not only can they give you an informed, objective opinion about how the way your pharmacy operates compared to others, business consultants can also help implement any changes. And it is this stage where the stumbling block can often lie, proposes Andy Chilton, of business management consultants Velresco. Larger pharmacy businesses with a head office will normally have a support team to help individual branches to implement change. For an independent where the owner or manager may already be working at full notch, the biggest hurdle is doing that analysis and initial implementation.

“If you have a support team at head office you have a chance, you have the capacity,” says Mr Chilton. “But if you are an independent and you are working flat out, how on earth do you change? That’s where you need the support and that’s where the external support will be handy. It could be anyone – LPCs, the NPA, Numark, etc – we are just one of them.” That said, “many of the independents are far more fleet of foot than their larger competitors, as they are not held back by corporate wheels.”

However, Mr Chilton is concerned that a sizeable proportion of pharmacy owners feel they do not need to change their business to reflect the changing shape of primary care. “There are some constraints. Pharmacists are in the habit of doing what they do now. In order to move forward, they need to let go ... if you do not think that change is about to occur you need to wake up.”

Allowing business consultants to analyse your business and observe what is going on can identify ways to free up the pharmacist to perform the new roles around medicines optimisation – either face to face or advising local surgeries. And even if you think you have good systems in place, “it’s quite remarkable that there are so many different ways of doing things, in an organisation, in a dispensary, in a person, even when there are SOPs.”

Investment and return

You may also be surprised at what an external observer can identify that will change the pharmacy business dynamic. RPS Global says its programmes can guarantee a 10-20 per cent performance improvement and a minimum 5:1 return on investment.

At Velresco, Mr Chilton suggests a ten-fold or more return on investment would be reasonable (and potentially 50-fold for a larger multiple). When called in to a pharmacy business “we take a whole system view when looking – it’s not just the process, but the people, the leadership, the layout, support services, IT and so on,” he says. “With all those factors we figure we can reduce the processing time to increase capacity by quantifying how much time we can free up in the team, which means freeing up the pharmacist.”

He asks questions such as: “What should the pharmacist be doing and not be doing? Pharmacists should not be pushing boxes around, so how much could they delegate away and then what else would they do? In some dispensaries, you have a chaotic way of dispensing, but in others you can see a very streamlined flow.”

Based on observing a range of pharmacies, he reckons that half of what pharmacists actually do is not something that personally needs to be done by them. With improved process efficiencies, there is the capacity to redistribute that 50 per cent of activity so that the pharmacist can concentrate on aspects such as being more visible and spending more time with patients.

Velresco’s approach – taking the time to see the whole pharmacy operation and understanding the role of each person working in the pharmacy team – distinguishes it from the standard time and motion type approach that other business consultants can take, says Mr Chilton. “Consultation is typically looking at something and analysing it. It’s just a transcription of a spreadsheet, but can take up a lot of time,” he says. The same amount of time spent observing can be spent again on transcribing and analysing it.

Mr Chilton recommends pharmacists club together when buying support services. Velresco, for one, can carry out an analysis that is much more cost effective for several pharmacies than one.

But will pharmacy owners be happy coming together if it means sharing business ‘secrets’? “When you think about the focus on pharmacy, it’s not just competing with other pharmacies, it’s the whole market. It’s the likes of the supermarkets, online retailers and the blurring of boundaries between health professions. I think community pharmacy has got to have a wholesale move towards more health service provision,” he argues, adding: “the ‘do nothing’ scenario is death.”

Taking on something bigger

Change can bigger for some than for others. Back in February, Celesio launched its first LloydsPharmacy franchise with pharmacist and entrepreneur Andrew Lane in Gloucester. As well as adopting the LloydsPharmacy identity and business strategy, the store has been refurbished in line with Celesio’s distinctive European Pharmacy Network design creating a “modern, fresh pharmacy environment.”

Taking on this franchise means Mr Lane has access to the full suite of LloydsPharmacy health service training covering a range of enhanced health services. The pharmacy can also offer LloydsPharmacy’s Betterlife independent living range, and benefits from HR provision, IT infrastructure, pharmacy and retails standard operating procedures, store design and category management.

“I truly believe through the franchise initiative we will be able to deliver more benefits and health services to the local community we currently serve, supporting patients’ health and wellbeing needs by combining our experience and local knowledge with the services and expertise from LloydsPharmacy,” said Mr Lane.

The franchisee scheme is the third tier of the AAH Pharmaceuticals Careway partnership. Nigel Swift, marketing and sales director at Celesio UK, says: “Our aim is for pharmacies that work with us to experience immediate benefits and long-term growth, whether this is from increased sales due to successful implementation of a ‘deal of the week’ through to greater customer confidence due to access to healthcare training.

“We have such a vast bank of expertise at our support centre and beyond, and the Careway offering allows independent pharmacy managers to tap deeper into our research, services, training, people and connectivity, while retaining full independence and management of their pharmacy.”

VIP support

Another approach to business service development is taking up the financial advice and services available via pharmacy symbol groups. Avicenna launched its VIP service, AviPlus, in the summer to offer its members advice and support around aspects such as regulatory challenges, revitalising the retail side of the business, and improving business performance and profits.

As part of the scheme, HSBC announced the introduction of reduced rates on loans for AviPlus members who are purchasing or refurbishing a pharmacy business, or for purchasing the premises freehold. Avicenna pointed out that this was in addition to the existing benefits for all Avicenna members of 18 months, free banking for new HSBC clients and discounted bank fees.

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