EXCLUSIVE

Day Lewis will pilot a click-and-collect service in January, C+D has learned.

Ten stores will pilot the scheme – which will allow patients to order products online and collect them through in-store terminals – with a full rollout expected by March.

The company is introducing the service to offer patients a “virtual inventory” of products larger than that offered by any one pharmacy, Day Lewis chief information officer Jay Patel told C+D in an exclusive interview last week (November 26).

The service, which will be offered through the company’s website, will see patients select prescriptions by registering online with an individual branch. They can then collect their medicines by using a click-and-collect terminal in the chosen store, said Mr Patel.

Day Lewis owns online pharmacy Thehealthcounter.com, which in 2013 teamed up with the National Pharmacy Association to offer independents the chance to run click-and-collect services on a range of products. 

An "extension of the pharmacy"

Mr Patel said money generated through retail sales and dispensed items will be returned to the correct pharmacy to avoid “demotivating” pharmacy teams.

“Our website is an extension of their pharmacy. If [products are] collected from the pharmacy or ordered by a patient of that pharmacy, they belong to that pharmacy,” he stressed.

The pharmacy chain is profiling where patients collect their prescriptions so it can encourage them to order retail products for collection at the same branches, Mr Patel said.