We’re disappointed by the Department of Health and Social Care’s decision to postpone the promised changes to hub and spoke dispensing, which was due to take effect in January.
This change to dispensing regulation will enable a choice for independent pharmacies that they’ve not previously had. It’s a choice which we believe passionately will make a huge impact to not only independent pharmacies but also their patients. And it’s why we’ve created HubRx –www.hubrx.co.uk – the UK’s first, large-scale automated dispensing facility designed solely for independents.
By not progressing in January or providing a revised date for delivering this change, yet again independent community pharmacies are being denied access to a capacity-creation service that could help them deliver the NHS Pharmacy First volumes many are struggling to meet.
In our own pharmacies, HubRx has released an average of 15 hours per day of pharmacist time, which has helped increase the delivery of NHS services by more than 400% in some cases. All that adds up to more viable pharmacies, more fulfilled pharmacists, more pressure taken off overstretched NHS services, and more care delivered to patients. And isn’t that what we all want to achieve?