“It’s almost a ridiculous statement," said Andy Beesley, director of Robotik Technology UK, which installs dispensing robots and develops compliance aids for pharmacies.
"I don’t see [an Amazon] type of company coming in,” he told C+D in an exclusive podcast recorded last November.
"A book, my CDs, the videos I want to buy – [they] are not the same as my medicines," he added. "It’s not the same concept at all."
“So who’s going to do big hub-and-spoke [dispensing]? It will be the people we already know – the very large companies.”
Listen to the full podcast below to hear Mr Beesley discuss:
- The role of the responsible pharmacist in the hub-and-spoke model
- What a “pack-dispensing robot” is, and how it can benefit a pharmacy
- How dispensing hubs cope with unexpected medication and order changes from clients
- Hub-and-spoke “scare stories”
- Why there is little published evidence of the effectiveness of hub-and-spoke dispensing.