In July HubRx took on its biggest customer and its biggest challenge to date. We caught up with the owner of Station Avenue Pharmacy, pharmacist Jonathan McGill, to see how things are going three months on…
The average pharmacy in England dispenses between 7,000 and 9,000 items each month. But for Jonathan and his team at Station Avenue Pharmacy in the seaside town of Bridlington the figure is considerably higher and delivered by a team of just 12 people from one branch.
The branch team’s hard work and being located within a busy GP practice helps keep dispensing volumes healthy, but Jonathan had reached the point where his pharmacy wasn’t just struggling to keep up with demand, it was bursting at the seams with prescription stock.
“We were outgrowing the pharmacy and I had started to look into renting a second space so we could effectively create our own hub for dispensing,” says Jonathan.
“I’ve used pharmacy dispensing robots in the past. But I had some reservations. They’re expensive to buy and maintain, and I’ve never truly found them to be efficient enough.
“Many need to be manually filled. Often, they can label and check, but not bag. And they can take up a lot of space.”
Jonathan said he then spotted an advert for HubRx which claimed to provide an alternative way he could create the capacity his pharmacy needed, but without the investment required to create his own hub.
Impressive set up
“I went to see the HubRx facility in Leeds. It’s an impressive set up and it’s clear that the team have put a lot of thought, time and money into creating something they’re proud of,” he adds.
“What they could offer was several steps on from what we could have achieved in a hub. Everything could be pre-bagged, checked and labelled for us. We could have access to the best dispensing robots and tech, but without the investment or management.”
Although Jonathan admits that he was still somewhat sceptical whether HubRx could deliver on all of its promises. But that feeling soon disappeared when the pharmacy’s first batch of prescription items were processed and arrived the next day.
“So long as we book the prescriptions in before the cut off time, most of our dispensing arrives ready before 9.30am the next day. It’s a very good service. It means we can work faster.”
100s of hours released
“The claim from HubRx is that they can save pharmacies time and capacity, and we felt it straight away,” adds Jonathan.
In fact, the automated dispensing service is now releasing hundreds of hours of dispensing time each week for the team at Station Avenue in Bridlington.
“The amount of work it takes out of the system is unbelievable,” adds Jonathan.
Gaining greater resilience
“The team at Station Avenue are fantastic, but we needed to relieve some of the pressure on them,’ says Jonathan.
“It’s so easy for a day of dispensing to get derailed by an urgent issue in pharmacy. Having HubRx means we can cope with whatever the day throws at us and that we never need to work late to catch up on dispensing. We can have a day off work and switch off.”
And it’s not just time being saved by the team. Jonathan has also felt the benefit of better buying.
Better buying power
“We’ve been surprised by the buying benefits. There are certain lines that we can now buy for a much lower price than we could previously.
“The team at HubRx watch the prices carefully. If they see that the cost of some items is set to increase, they buy before it happens so we can benefit from the old, lower price.”
As Jonathan adds, HubRx is capable of more than just passing on its group buying benefits to its customers. Through investment into developing its own buying and AI powered price analysis tools, the team can manage and predict buying increases and fluctuations with sophistication.
Support beyond dispensing
While currently the pharmacy in Bridlington has just one consultation room, Jonathan and his team have also benefitted from accessing HubRx’s Clinical Services Support Package – a free resource that includes £1,200 worth of PGDs.
“The PGDs they’ve given us cover a lot of areas. They’re really handy.”
The 3-month review
So, three months after going live with HubRx we ask Jonathan whether he has any regrets about not creating his own hub and instead working with HubRx?
“No at all. I wouldn’t want to go back.
“It was simple to go live with HubRx and we felt the benefits straight away.”
