new can, new worms

[Sir_Dispensalot]

they've only gone and bloody copied the US!

The Press Association: Boots open drive-through pharmacy


it won't be that long until we're all working in a bloody drive through McDruggies....

FAST FOOD Pharmacy




how the bloody hell would we be able to stay professional shouting advice through a bloody hatch? As if our professional image doesn't already take enough of a battering!
And how would they offer the full range of services? Can't do an MUR through a hatch (because almost certainly after a certain time they become drive-through only)? If it's a 100 hour contract then the LPC should be making very loud noises to the PCT about contract violation...

[Asterix]

Re: new can, new worms

Dear God, it's turning into a joke every day. I have no respect for retail pharmacy anywhere in the world I am afraid.

[JonF]

Re: new can, new worms

Australia have drive through off-licences(bottle shops as they call them) Saves having to carry all those crates of beer, staff just load 'em right into boot of car!

Bonza idea mate!

[Zoggite]

Re: new can, new worms

I can beat that: a motorway service station restaurant, on the Brussels' equivalent of the M25, was offering a free glass of white wine when you ordered the fresh Mussels in creamy leek sauce with a side-order of chips!

[Fleegle]

Re: new can, new worms

A former McDonalds restaurant..The Boots high-flying managers have been eating regularly in the land of the golden arches, at the table of the painted clown..doesn't surprise me really..the west-end branch in Edinburgh sells more sandwiches, and bottled water than anything else...who did they copy?...Lloyds and their silly milk products..Thanks Alan..enjoy your retirement, and hope you crash a few more Jaguars..you feckin eejit.

[Onion Bunny]

Re: new can, new worms

Just what I thought!

Pharmacists Believe Drive-Through Windows Contribute to Delays, Errors

[SolomonQ]

Re: new can, new worms

still, dont think these sorta things aren't still in the pipeline,

remember, the vast majority of pharmacists are employees working in non-pharmacist owned companies based on retail-oriented models.

The owners, directors and other contractor have profits and shareholders to think about rather than what's best for the pharmacy profession or the patients.

They will come out with these models, market forces will "force" some pharmacists to work in such environment, the owners (contractors) will reap the rewards(£££) the while the pharmacists will have to bear the brunt of any mistakes made because of working in such environments.

[Sir_Dispensalot]

Re: new can, new worms

someone ought to write to the journal about it, highlighting that study onion found.

Go on solly, you could be famous!!

[SolomonQ]

Re: new can, new worms

I have other avenues open to me in the case that i do want to become famous.

Just to make it clear to people, this (drive through pharmacy) is another nail in the coffin, that hosts our profession.

[Pharmanaut]

Re: new can, new worms

someone ought to write to the journal about it, highlighting that study onion found.

Go on solly, you could be famous!!

Would anyone want to work in such an innovative environment?
Especially for that particular company?

Its being hailed as the first one in the UK.
Anyone remember one run by Dallas in, I think it was, the Bristol area in the early 90's?
Mind you announcing that it is the second one isn't that exciting.

[Fleegle]

Re: new can, new worms

That's interesting..assume it closed down then..any idea why?

[Sir_Dispensalot]

Re: new can, new worms

probably got sick of all the shotguns being poked in the drive-thru hatch...

[Tony Schofield]

Re: new can, new worms

A pharmacist called Gurd Chahal opened a drive in at I believe Tamworth in the early 1990's. I went to see it and it was a joke. It probably went bust as it wasn't very busy when I was there.


This is not another nail in the coffin. I can see people having their scriots ETP'd to such a place and picking them up on their way home from work. It is an option that some will avail themselves of. Drive in pharmacies have been available in the USA for at least 20 years so obviously the model works there.

I do take exception to how it has been promoted but the concept doesn;t scare me.

[Sir_Dispensalot]

Re: new can, new worms

i can see your vision of how it will work tony but i can't help thinking that good ol' boots will stitch up the pharmacists working there so they end up forced to do clinical services through the hatch. If you read some of the american pharmacist blogs (a large number of whom work in the drive-thru model) i can just see it becoming a stressy, customer-from-hell sort of environment. Yes, there will be quite a few with busy lives picking up an ETP from the hatch, but how many will be taking a 20-item script to the hatch and wanting it immediately - whilst a huge queue of honking cars build up outside?

Remember though - when McD's started the drive-thru in the uk they decided on a modular design that could be dropped into a very small footprint of space. What followed was a massive expansion of McDonalds in the UK. Many people are now within a 10 minute drive of a McDonalds. If McBoots follow this model, we could see a rash of them spreading out across retail parks in the uk and them becoming the norm instead of the exception.

[Tony Schofield]

Re: new can, new worms

They still need a NHS licence and must prove that they are "necessary or desirable to maintain an adequate pharmaceutical service in the locality"


I have seen many drive in pharmacies in the States over the last 20 years and I have never ever seen a queue of cars waiting at any of them.

It is an option and no more. It isn't the next big thing