Pharmacy Hub and Spoke Changes to Go Ahead

The Department of Health finally announced today that it would go ahead with plans to extend hub and spoke legislation between different legal entities. Our Sales and Marketing Director, Louise Laban, takes a look at what this really means for community pharmacy and what they should do next.

The announcement today to move ahead with updated hub and spoke legislation in England is a huge step forward in transforming the future of pharmacy.

It will extend hub and spoke dispensing arrangements so that it can take place between different legal entities from January 1, 2025, pending statutory approval. This is a significant step in transforming an age-old dispensing process and it will open up a host of opportunities for pharmacies across the country. Despite misconceptions there is a range of affordable solutions now available that make versions of hub and spoke available for pharmacies of all shapes and sizes. Time and technology have moved on significantly in the past five years so it is time to move on from the outdated narrative that hub and spoke is only a realistic and affordable option for larger groups.

Opening up hub and spoke

Under the new legislation there are a range of models that could be put in place which allow for the automation of the original pack dispensing process. This includes:

• Any pharmacy wanting to centralise their repeat dispensing process
• Anyone pharmacy want to provide dispensing to other pharmacies
• Any pharmacy groups who want to come together to create their own hub
• Pharmacy owners with more than one chain of pharmacies who want to bring these different businesses together into one hub and spoke model.
  The Department of Health also announced that it would allow hub direct to patient delivery in a model that will allow prescriptions to be sent from the spoke to the hub and then straight to the patient.

While the statutory instrument has still to be formally approved by parliament, the news comes just at the right time with many pharmacies already struggling to meet the minimum consultation thresholds for Pharmacy First. A recent survey by the Association of Independent and Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp – now IPA) revealed a fifth of those questions admitted that this month’s Pharmacy First threshold of five consultations felt “unachievable”. Almost 60% said they would struggle to achieve ten consultations a month and over 70% said they had struggled to meet just three consultations a month.

Saving Time for Pharmacy First Services

 It is quite clear that community pharmacy will continue to struggle to meet the Pharmacy First thresholds if they insist on keeping the pharmacy dispensing process as it is in store.

 Attempting to do so will simply result in one of two potential outcomes:

1. The pharmacist will remain knee-deep in the dispensing process with no time for services
2. The pharmacist will fall significantly behind in the dispensing process as they try and juggle the impossible task of delivering both dispensing and services.

Either of these options will result in a significant risk to the pharmacy business be it financially or from a customer service perspective.

The only solution for pharmacies is to move as much of the dispensing process offsite as possible to a central location. This could either be a hub or even one pharmacy branch in a group. Taking this step could half your dispensing volumes in store.

Original pack dispensing accounts for 70% of the dispensing workload in an average pharmacy. Our data shows that automating your original pack dispensing process can release up to 4 hours 27 minutes each day in every store. That time can be redirected back into patient facing services to generate much needed additional revenue. This model would also ensure greater staff satisfaction with staff working at the top of their clinical profession rather than just carrying out logistical and administrative tasks that can easily be automated.

What should you do next?

Our advice to pharmacies would be to start exploring options for automating original pack dispensing now to get ahead of the game. Act now by championing the change and discover how you can automate your original pack dispensing process for repeat prescriptions. The change will come round quickly and it’s crucial that community pharmacy ensures it is ahead of the game. The chances of the changes not being “made” law are slim with the last affirmative statutory instrument not to receive Commons approval was in 1978. Change is coming – it’s time to embrace it.

Contact us today to book a free hub and spoke consultation.