In a case study published on its website last week (April 20), patient group direction (PGD) provider PharmaDoctor said that the Raylane Pharmacy Group represents some of its “most successful partner pharmacy clinics”.

The group, based in Cheltenham, Worcester and the West Midlands, has been delivering the PharmaDoctor travel health service since 2019, it added.

Read more: Why you should set up a travel clinic in your community pharmacy

Analysis of consultation data from the eTool used to deliver the service showed that the group’s first two branches to launch the service “carried out over 5,050 patient consultations” over a 12-month period between March 2022 and February 2023, it said.

James Pharmacy in Cheltenham and Claines Pharmacy in Worcester averaged more than 420 travel health consultations per month, generating the two pharmacies “nearly £600,000 [in] new business”, it added.

4,323 travel vaccines

The PGD provider said that James Pharmacy alone generated “over £323,000 [in] new business” from its travel health service during the 12-month period.

PharmaDoctor chief executive Graham Thoms told C+D this is "equivalent to dispensing 250k+ items per year" or to "carrying out over 23,000 CPCS consultations", which would be "impossible" to achieve.

According to the data, the average age of the 2,762 patients using the service was 39 years old, with each patient spending £117 per consultation on average.

Read more: Mind the gap (year) rush to your community pharmacy travel clinic

It added that the Cheltenham pharmacy made £258,113 from administering 4,323 travel vaccines and £17,803 from dispensing malaria tablets to 432 patients.

It also made an additional “£48,000+ from upselling travel-related products” such as insect repellent and sun cream during travel clinic consultations, PharmaDoctor said.

The vaccines delivered in the highest volumes were typhoid (873), rabies (802) and diptheria, tetanus and pertussis (653), according to the data.

Read more: How can community pharmacy seize the booming private healthcare opportunity?

Meanwhile, Claines Pharmacy generated more than £264,000 in new business from its travel health service during the 12-month period, with the average patient spending £115 per consultation, PharmaDoctor said.

The Worcester pharmacy made £212,835 from administering 3,510 travel vaccines, £12,956 from dispensing malaria tablets to 319 patients and a further £38,000 from upselling travel-related products, it added.

10% profit share for staff

Raylane Pharmacy Group head of operations Kalpesh Patel said that the group offers staff a “10% share of the profits generated by the service” to “motivate” them and “ensure they are 100% engaged and committed to providing the highest quality service”.

“This one element is the greatest success factor in our success,” he added.

Mr Patel said that pharmacy staff also “compete” across branches to achieve the highest five-star reviews and to generate “the most business”, with results posted daily on the pharmacy’s internal travel clinic WhatsApp support group.

Read more: How you can capitalise on increased demand for pharmacy travel health services

“Due to the success of our travel clinic service and the excellent brand reputation we’ve earned, we have now launched other new profitable private pharmacy services in partnership with Pharmadoctor,” he added.

 

While the group initially only launched the travel clinic in two branches in 2019, the service expanded to operate out of four branches between April 2021 and March 2022 and has been running across six branches since the following year.