Superdrug Cut Private Prescription Charges to cost + £2.25

[mrmeds]

The last profitable goose in pharmacy has been murdered. I can't help thinking that SD dosn't actually dispense many private rx's and this is a hollow gesture/ marketing gimmick. They obviously havn't thought through the reprocussions such as the fact that The gov might think we're prepared to do everything for £2.25 a pop.
I'm sure this fee won't even cover the work involved in dispensing and taking payment ( probably by card ! ).
Private rx's in our shop have always been competatively priced and a welcome boost to a pharmacy that's main purpose is selling oytc medicines and providing NHS services, as opposed to a '' health and Beauty retailer''.

Maybe i should offer to provide some of superdrugs lines at cost + peanuts . How much does a sandwich or choccy bar cost these days.


pah ! rant over for now

[mrmeds]

obviously i meant PRIVATE- before the spelling police descend

[DavidS]

amended

[crit care]

i guess it gets people through the door, cheap private scripts. Pharmacy take a while sorting it out, leaving the person to wander round the shop and come out with a trolley full of goods they hadn't intended on purchasing...so what they lose out on the prescription side of things, they make up in cosmetic and cotton wool sales!

[shan]

I don't think these cheap tricks work on a long run. Already there are pharmacies which offer discounts (some even give cost price)

1st -- How many private scripts make up your business ??

2nd -- Do you really think the customer will take the trouble of going around searching for the SD store in hope of saving 3 or 4 quids ?? (assuming they don't know the price)

3rd -- If a person is getting the drug regularly on private script (ex. Viagra) he would rather trust and keep it with his local chemist than go to a SD store.

There are many other factors which will make this scheme only a short term success and then flop altogether.

Shan

[El-loco]

All this comes about because any Tom, Dick or Harriet can own a pharmacy. They don't have to make a profit at it and they certainly don't have to worry about ethical issues. It is a loss-leader for many companies that increases their footfall leading to an increased profit overall.

This is all so because pharmacists have been, traditionally, short sighted and apathetic. "As long as I can make a few quid today why should I have to worry about anyone else tomorrow?" There are proprietors RIGHT NOW looking to find new income streams (as they put it).

Is this a profession?

[SolomonQ]

private Rxs are normally brought by well to do patients who wont see the diff. between £5-6 and £2.25. If anything they would assume superdrug is giving lower quality meds. and also how do they inetend to advertise this to the prospective customers.

The fee is a minimum so wont affect the price of say viagra, malarone etc... which are the most common privately prescribed meds.

[mrmeds]

it will affect the price . We are currently more competative than anyone else in twon ( bar online shopping ) and charge 2.55 per tab of malarone. This would mean a box of 12 would cost £30.60, SD price would be £27.46. A mere 10% mark up, as glaxo are tighter than the proverbial ducks rear end when it comes to discount. If we made 10 % on NHS turnover we'd all be jobless.

[pharmacrat]

this will make things easier for the last few people on big private scripts especially in london, imported meds (adderall, vicodin, focalin, hydrocodone, triazolam- now illegal to manufacture here but still schedule4cd) and other meds the nhs is unwilling to prescribe (long term mst/sevredol/ cyclomorph ampoules for heroin users, dexamfetamine, flunitrazepam, sodium amytal, physeptone tabs and amps, pink cyclzoine and white cyclizine)

most of them are well into middle age now and its the nhs fault they got addicted writing huge scripts for these meds in the 70s and early 80s then just cutting it off and saying "right everyone liquid methadone or nothing"- except for a very lucky few who continued on the high-tariff scripts. it might be better in that there are less overdoses than when palfium etc were easy to get rx'd but it leads people back onto street drugs and away from employment and respectability

2.25 plus cost might reduce the crime rate in the capital well done superdrug

[mrmeds]

had my first customer telling me superdrug was cheaper for malarone, and asking me to match their price. Said no . I value my time more than that. By the time they have paid by card 20p-60p fee, and we've recorded the transaction in a private prescription register, label, possibly carton, dispensing bag it will be being done virtually f.o.c. Whey take the risk of professional involvement in something for free ?