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The recent Pharmacy Plus care homes debacle could cause homes to reconsider their medicines supply, Numark has suggested.

Distance-selling Pharmacy Plus supplied hundreds of homes around the country from its Bristol hub, but when it suddenly went into administration last month homes had just two weeks to find alternative pharmacies to supply their medicines. €There was nothing personal or local to the service offering,€ said Mimi Lau, Numark's director of pharmacy services. €Care homes may have found this attractive once, but will they want that again in the future? Perhaps there is a lesson to be learnt here for care homes, and that is that it's better to keep it local.€

Homes have generally gravitated towards pharmacies who can offer them more, over and above the supply of medicines; free fridges, fax machines, trolleys and so on, said Ms Lau. €What care homes have failed to recognise is the value that the local pharmacy can provide. Being local, the pharmacy can respond quicker and better to requests and have more flexibility in its approach. Furthermore, they can offer support to care home staff in providing quality assured training on medicines management.€