JOIN CDA NNEWS INDEX POLITICS DISPENSING EDUCATION FEATURES BOOKS SMALL ADS GP FEES LIGHT BITES
Practice
survey visit -
pharmacy ownership, efficiency
drives, OTC sales advice, protection from chemists
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With some relief I retired from full-time
general practice
in May 2001! After thirty years in
dispensing practices and having written five editions of The Complete
Dispenser - the latest published in February 2006 - I can
now visit individual
dispensing practices to help them achieve the most from their
dispensaries by eliminating hidden sources of loss and by introducing
OTC sales - or to discuss problems in general.
In addition to that, never has the time been more favourable for many practices, dispensing or not, to consider opening their own pharmacy. The recent Office of Fair Trading developments and the Local Improvement and Finance Trust (LIFT) initiative, together with the NHS Plan's keenness on "one-stop" primary care, all give impetus to any such plans. In addition, I can guide even many urban practices with next door pharmacies towards a pharmacy contract of their own. In fact can guide any practice - not just dispensing practices - through the whole process from the germ of the idea right through viability calculations up to the opening of your spanking new pharmacy whose profit will be entirely yours. For details of my book YOUR OWN PHARMACY please click here
It may well be possible for the practice to arrange full sponsorship for the visits and, if so, there will be no charge to the practice - except, perhaps a sandwich and a cuppa. Give it a try. For dispensary advice I would like to spend at least half a day with each practice. In the case of visits about proposed pharmacies I usually spend the whole day in the practice bringing with me a comprehensive, tailor-made booklet for your situation which includes details of all the possible routes through which to apply and an indication of the potential income from your pharmacy. Following the visit I will offer a service which will take the practice company through all the application processes.
THE FORMAT FOR INCREASING DISPENSING PROFITABILITY A week or so before the visit I may send the practice a short questionnaire which will help to give me some insight into how you do things. Please copy the questionnaire to every member of the dispensary team, all the doctors, the dispenser(s) and the practice manager and let me have the completed forms when I arrive. The first part of the visit will consist of a detailed discussion about the management of the dispensary (I will not need any confidential figures). The final part consists of a short look at the dispensary in the light of the earlier discussion. Finally, at the completion of the session, I will leave the practice with a booklet summarising the matters discussed in the meeting. ASSURANCES I will make no attempt to persuade you to use any particular product or interfere with your practice formulary. There are better experts than me to do that. The visit may be partially or wholly sponsored by a pharmaceutical company but I am not an employee of any such company and I will not promote any of their drugs. For the dispensary assessment I do not need your confidential financial figures. All the discussions will be absolutely
confidential and informal. OTHER TOPICS FOR WHICH I CAN VISIT TO ADVISE More and more practices are seriously thinking of opening their own pharmacies for the very serious reasons mentioned above. I will help and guide. Setting up the very profitable and legal OTC sales service. Why do you think chemists are so rich? Any subject which comes to mind although advance notice is always helpful !
SUMMARY As you know, there is more to running a dispensary than simply dispensing drugs. That is where I hope to be able to help. I believe that going through the practice formulary to squeeze every last penny from the drugs dispensed can only be carried out successfully at the cost of a great deal of extra effort in time that few practices have. There are other ways of increasing income! Anyway, with the demands and diktats of proscriptive PCTs there is little room for movement here. It is my hope that the suggestions I will make will not involve much extra work for the already hard pressed dispensary team but will improve efficiency and stop most of those hidden losses which could run into many thousands each year. Finally, pharmacy. Gaps have opened in the control of entry process. Surely you should take advantage of them to own your own pharmacy? Please click here to see my book, Your own pharmacy.
CONTACT Why not give it a try? What is there to lose? If you would like to learn more about
this offer or to make arrangements for the visit then please contact me
in either of the following ways: Feedback to the sponsors shows the practices I have been to so far have found the visits very helpful. After all, when did you last give your dispensary a thorough overhaul? Are you really sure that you are getting the most out of it? Should you increase practice profitability by opening a pharmacy? Let's find out! Don't let a pharmacist have all the profits. Remember, ANY practice may set up a company to apply to open a pharmacy. Get in there and do it ! David Roberts |