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Labour’s 10-year plan has changed pharmacy’s landscape. The message to independents is ‘your role is changing and changing fast’, says Mandeep Mudhar…

The plan recognises pharmacy’s pivotal role in the healthcare system but also reveals a hard truth. Budgets will remain tight, GP access will continue to be limited and some services, once delivered through the NHS, could begin to fall away.

It is clear that if independent pharmacies want to take control of their own destiny, they must embrace private services.

Provision

These changes are not about profit-chasing at the expense of quality. It is about designing sustainable, tailored and locally outsourced services that will fill the gaps necessary for the UK’s health service.

Provision of travel health, minor illness treatment, diagnostic testing, and preventative screening will increasingly become the responsibility of community pharmacies, and they should be ready to take it on. This is an opportunity but can only be capitalised upon well if it is met with rigour and focus.

Planning

Launching into incorporating private services without thorough planning would be like opening a shop with no stock or hiring employees without training. You must begin by identifying demands within your client base. What is it that your patients used to get from the NHS that they cannot get now and could so from you?

What are the changes to commissioned GP services that means some services are no long commissioned locally? Services that were either previously provided by GPs or other local HCP’s can now be provided by you privately as the demand from patients still exists.

These include obvious ones like travel vaccinations and travel health to more complex ones like phlebotomy, screening and diagnostics. So much information surrounding these changes is publicly available, and understanding the change is essential.

Once this starts you can supplement and increase your understanding with customer feedback and shared insights. Additionally, organisations including Alphega can support pharmacies with a SWOT analysis that will help when assessing your strengths and weaknesses and identifying where you can really add value to your business.

From there, it’s about strengthening, building a robust and sustainable service model. Is it best delivered under a Patient Group Direction?

Will you need a business mentor or third-party professional like Alphega Pharmacy? Is there an opportunity to boost and improve your capital? Maybe new technology could streamline operations. Whether it’s offering solutions or guiding you to the right partners, organisations like Alphega can help.

Pricing

Pricing is important, and it must be realistic. Once you’ve factored in setup costs, training, and supplies you can begin to forecast how many patients you need to serve weekly or monthly, to break even. What might your margin per consultation be? It is this clarity that creates an in-demand service.

Professionalism

Professionalism is non-negotiable. If this endeavour is taken on then you must provide a seamless, thorough service, not just clinical competence.

Professional, well-trained staff that deliver a good service acts as a catalyst for good business. Marketing this professionalism will also consolidate the credibility of your business, and doing it effectively is key.

Think about local schools, religious centres, gyms, public spaces. Channels can include social media, which could also bring a wide range of customers. Online reviews will then reflect the strong credibility of the business.

Final steps

Once these services are up and running, they will require the same level of attention as the core business. All of the normal checks are required; checking key performance indicators, monitoring revenue, gathering patient feedback, watching profitability. Moving forward will require learning from what works and what doesn’t.

Labour’s 10-year plan offers an opportunity to redefine the role of your independent pharmacy, but it requires careful and strategic planning. Private services are the future of community healthcare – reliance on the NHS is no longer enough, so private services must run alongside this as another critical channel of service provision.

If the burden on the NHS is redistributed to communities, there will be visible positive effects, and the pharmacies that treat this as a serious business venture will be the ones to reap the rewards.

Mandeep Mudhar is head of Alphega Pharmacy.