Our Urgent Need for Hub and Spoke Dispensing

Safraz Shafqat and Qammar Nazir are Managing Directors at the Ascent Wellfield Group of pharmacies. The group successfully purchased a vast quantity of ex-Lloyds Pharmacy branches when they were sold in 2023. They now find themselves in the position of being a large pharmacy group with branches that have a range of different legal entities. They strongly believe they would benefit from a hub and spoke model of dispensing but they are currently unable to take that route due to the delays in new legislation. Here they explain why new legislation needs to be implemented urgently.

The Potential of Hub and Spoke

“As a pharmacy group that has successfully acquired over 45 companies within the past 16 months, we are committed to delivering efficient, high-quality pharmaceutical services to our patients. We believe that implementing a hub and spoke model of dispensing would allow us to create much needed capacity in our stores. It would mean we could locate dispensing offsite in one central location, so that staff in each of our branches can focus their time on providing patient facing services such as Pharmacy First, contraception services and blood pressure checks. This would have benefits not just for our pharmacies and their patients, but for the wider NHS which is under significant pressure.

The Challenge Of  Outdated Pharmacy Legislation

Under current legislation, implementing a hub-and-spoke model across our network has proven to be impossible. Our group acquired the third highest number of ex-Lloyds pharmacy branches in the country. As a result, and due to terms of the sale, the vast majority of our branches have different legal entities. We operate under 30 different companies so it’s a massive struggle to implement hub and spoke, whereas traditional pharmacy multiples are quite easily able to do so. Under current legislation, hub and spoke dispensing can only take place between pharmacy branches with the same legal entity.

Following a detailed consultation process in 2023, secondary legislation to allow hub and spoke dispensing between pharmacies with different legal entities was supposed to be introduced this month (January 2025) but it was inexplicably put on hold last year. The Government has since confirmed it plans to introduce the new legislation this year but information from Community Pharmacy England suggests it could be the end of 2025 before pharmacies like ours are able to take advantage of it. This simply isn’t good enough.

Why Hub and Spoke Matters

Hub and spoke isn’t a new concept. It’s a proven way of working that is already available to those pharmacies who are lucky enough to have branches in the same legal entity. Groups like ours are being prevented from putting in place this model of dispensing because of nothing more than a technicality. As a result, we don’t have the same opportunities as other pharmacy groups and we are being disadvantaged. This two-tier system must be brought to an end sooner rather than later. It’s important for all pharmacy groups to be on a level playing field and have the same access to new ways of working.

The hub-and-spoke model is a transformative approach that allows for centralised dispensing while maintaining personalised patient care at local pharmacy sites. We have seen it working elsewhere so we know that this model has the potential to streamline our operations, improve cost efficiency, and ensure consistent standards of care across the sector. The existing regulatory frameworks are creating significant barriers to realising these benefits at scale across the whole of the community pharmacy sector – a sector that is already struggling due to a funding contract that has been inadequate for five years and has now expired. Community pharmacy is under a lot of pressure, many of us are not able to meet basic consultation goals or deliver the basic numbers. Hub and spoke is one tool that could help free up time in store so we are better able to meet these targets.

The Funding Crisis in Community Pharmacy

We feel strongly about this issue due to the impact that the delay in legislation is having on our business in terms of preparing for the future. In light of these challenges, we have been working closely with other key stakeholders, including MPs, to emphasise the urgency of legislative change. We strongly advocate for the approval of the Model One concept for hub-and-spoke operations, which would allow all pharmacies, regardless of ownership structure, to collaborate and leverage this model effectively.

Model One would allow the hub pharmacy to assemble the medicine and send it back to the spoke pharmacy for the patient to collect – even if the hub and the spoke pharmacies have different legal entities. We know we would benefit hugely from this model, and we are not alone. There are many more pharmacies just like us who are being prevented from taking advantage of this opportunity.

The Need for Immediate Action

The approval of this legislative reform is not merely an operational necessity; it is a pivotal step in modernising the pharmacy sector, ensuring sustainability, and enhancing the quality of care delivered to patients. We urge policymakers to prioritise this issue and act decisively to support the future of pharmacy services.”

Safraz and Qammar recently took place in a roundtable discussion at Westminster about the need for hub and spoke legislation. To read the full summary of the roundtable discussion click here.