The husband-and-wife team – who already own B&H Pharmacy in Worcestershire – bought the branch in Colwall in July after securing the loan from Santander.

Balbinder Jagpal – who acquired HealthPoint Pharmacy with his wife, Harjinder Jagpal – said his daughter and son-in-law are running the business, which opened “six weeks ago”.

The team has already revamped the pharmacy’s service offering, including introducing free medicines deliveries, which have “not been offered [here] before”, Mr Jagpal told C+D last week (August 24).

“Colwall is quite a small village” with “a predominantly elderly population”. The nearest pharmacy is “about four miles away”, he claimed.

Despite the recent trend for pharmacies charging for medicines deliveries, Mr Jagpal said it would be “ludicrous” to charge for this service in the Colwall area.

Patients “really like” MURs

The pharmacy – which serves 2,500 residents – has already introduced new medicine service (NMS) consultations and medicines use reviews (MURs) – which were not offered by the previous owner – as well as a sore throat testing service and flu vaccinations.

The pharmacy has completed “near enough” 100 MURs since it opened, Mr Jagpal estimated, and patients “are really taking to them”.

The branch has “also increased the retail side of things”, he said. “People go for walks in the [nearby] Malvern Hills, so it makes sense to have first aid and strappings.”

“We’ve already noticed an uptake of about 20-30% from the retail side,” he explained

“Less reliant on NHS”

The group has plans to expand further, Mr Jagpal said, and has “got a model in mind of the sort of pharmacies we want”.

“We’re trying to get away from that 90%:10% turnover [model], where 90% is NHS [income] and 10% is everything else.

“We don’t know what the future holds for [NHS funding] so we are looking at anything else we can offer,” he added.