The multiple announced yesterday (January 3) it had bought Wiggly-Amps – which develops systems including an online consultation service – for an undisclosed sum.

Boots told C+D the acquisition on December 24 “allows Boots UK to access software that links our patients directly to their GP records for online prescription ordering”.

“Not only will this empower customers to better manage their healthcare needs in an accessible way, it will make the process much simpler and quicker for our patients and supports the NHS in the longer term,” Boots said.

Wiggly-Amps also produces touch screens for patients to self-check-in for appointments at GP surgeries, and others which can be used to record blood pressure, according to its website.

Boots told C+D it will “continue to consider” implementing touch-screen technology in its pharmacies.

“Digital healthcare ambitions”

The multiple’s pharmacy director Richard Bradley said: “It’s an exciting time for the future of pharmacy and [this] announcement is just one of the ways we are strengthening the development of our digital healthcare ambitions.”

During a conference call with analysts to discuss its financial results – which included a drop in pharmacy and retail sales – last month, the president of Boots’ parent company Walgreens Boots Alliance, Alex Gourlay, said that Boots “recognised the need to modernise our customer proposition”.

Boots has “started work on this already”, by “looking to shift where we invest”, focusing on new products and propositions, and “digitalising the whole beauty experience”, Mr Gourlay said.