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A pharmacy entering September with its clinical services fully staffed, well signposted and understood by the local practice is in a much stronger position than one trying to catch up in October, says Dr Chris Martin…

Community pharmacy tends to think of summer as a quieter stretch of the year. Footfall dips as families travel and the seasonal spike of colds, flu and winter respiratory illness feels a long way off. For many pharmacies, there is a temptation to hold the line through August and wait for autumn to bring the usual rush back through the door.

That instinct is understandable, but the quieter summer period should have been one of the most important times of the year for preparing and growing your business.

The most successful pharmacies treat summer not as a quieter period to navigate but as a window in which to prepare. The work done in July and August often determines whether a pharmacy enters winter ready to seize opportunities or simply manage pressures.

There are practical challenges, of course. Summer can bring a mix of staffing shortages, variable footfall and the need to prepare both services and stock for the months ahead. These are familiar challenges, but summer also provides an opportunity to address them before activity levels increase later in the year.

Five areas worth focusing on

There is more room to act on them in summer than at any other time of year, precisely because the tempo of dispensing and consultation provision eases.

There are five areas worth focusing on. The first is NHS clinical services. Summer should have been a good time to review Pharmacy First activity, address gaps in referral pathways, refresh consultation protocols and prepare teams for the vaccination programmes that dominate the autumn calendar.

For example, quieter summer weeks can be used to run refresher training, update in-store signage to prompt walk-in consultations, and confirm handover arrangements with local GP surgeries.

A pharmacy that walks into September with its clinical services fully staffed, well-signposted and understood by the local GP practice is in a much stronger position than one still trying to catch up in October.

The second is private services. Independent prescribing, travel health, weight management, ear care and skin health consultations all have summer as a natural window for review and, in many categories, active demand.

Alphega member Karen O’Brien at Mayfield Pharmacy in Devon is a good example of how this can work in practice. With upskilled staff trained to deliver weight management consultations and ongoing support, the pharmacy has been put in a stronger position to convert summer demand into a private, revenue-generating service.

Clearest ways to build resilient income

Expanding this side of the business is one of the clearest ways to build resilient income that isn't tied to the NHS contract cycle.

The third is seasonal category performance. Sun care, hayfever, hydration, first aid and travel health are all peak summer categories, and they deserve the same rigour of merchandising, staff briefing and consultative selling that flu remedies receive in October. Underinvesting in summer categories leaves easy revenue on the shelf.

The fourth is operational efficiency. Summer provides a valuable opportunity to step back from the immediate pressures of day-to-day operations, review SOPs, tackle process improvements that may have been delayed during busier periods, and give teams dedicated time for continuing professional development.

The fifth, and often the most overlooked, is the relationship with the local GP practice. Summer offers the space for a proper conversation with practice managers and clinical leads about how the pharmacy can absorb more workload, share care pathways, and support the practice's own winter planning.

Those conversations are far easier to have now than in the middle of a flu campaign, when staff can be stretched and there's little time to think beyond the day in front of them.

Autumn and winter will always be community pharmacy's busiest and most financially significant period. However, pharmacies that emerge from those months in the strongest position are often the ones that used summer wisely.

Dr Chris Martin is a non-executive advisor to Cencora Alliance Healthcare.