Introduction to Modiplus: Chartered Accountants, Chartered Tax Advisers and Business Development Advisers.

Pharmacy overview
Community pharmacy business has changed dramatically over the last few years and more so since the new contract in April 2005. To improve profits and cash flow, community pharmacy owners need to be proactive in providing more of the advanced and enhanced services on top of the essential services.

It is therefore imperative to have a newly fitted pharmacy with a consultation room and to provide the following services for the benefit of the patients:

Medicines Use Review (MUR) - this could potentially earn over £10,000 per annum
Minor Ailments Services
Smoking Cessation Services
Supervised Administration of Prescribed Medicines
Supplementary Prescribing Service
Needle and Syringe Exchange Schemes
Anticoagulant Monitoring
Weight Loss Clinic
Chlamydia Testing
Diabetes Screening / Monitoring
Blood Pressure Monitoring
Allergy Testing
Gluten Free Food Supply
On Demand Specialist Drugs
Medicines Assessment and Compliance Support
Care Home Support
Patient Group Direction Service
Full Clinical Medication Review
Disease Specific Medicines Management
Screening Service
Patient Group Direction
Out of Hours Services
Home Delivery

Our experience suggests that clients that provide all of the listed services and demonstrate the following skills are generally very successful: -

They have a customer focused pharmacy
They embrace change
They work on their business rather than in it
They delegate
They continuously develop themselves and their staff
They engage with GPs, PCTs and LPCs

There are of course many challenges from: -

Getting extra work from the PCTs
Competition from 100 hour pharmacies
Competition from multiples and supermarkets
Threat from internet pharmacies
Relocations, new medical centres and lift projects
Policlinics
Category M claw back

So the independents need to run fast to stand still. However, the prospects for community pharmacy remain good because: -

Global sum for community pharmacy in England is over £2 billion for 2008/09
Purchase profits are guaranteed at £500 million per annum
Members of public make 2 billion visits to pharmacies each year
Patient demand for pharmacies is predominantly local
Healthcare spending has increased substantially since 2002/03 to £106 billion by 2007/08
The ageing population is having a positive impact on pharmacy services
The total number of prescriptions dispensed in the UK has doubled since 1985.