Remote dispensing machines could help independent pharmacists fight off competition from 100-hour businesses, Sigma managing director Bharat Shah has told C+D.

Mr Shah said independents could serve patients outside opening hours if they took advantage of remote dispensing technology that would allow pharmacists to oversee out-of-hours dispensing via a video link.

The use of such remote dispensing machines is currently prohibited in UK unless they are in a registered pharmacy premises and under the supervision of a pharmacist, but this could change if regulations covering modern information technologies are drawn up in the future. 

"If you close your shop at 7pm and there are still some prescriptions to come, you could have a machine to do the dispensing as needed," Mr Shah argued.

"At the moment, 100-hour pharmacies are supplementing the time [outside regular opening hours], and if that business went to independents, I think 100-hour businesses would be affected."

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	But others warned that in practice, dispensing machines might do little to help independents compete with 100-hour openings. Graham Phillips, contractor at Manor Pharmacy (Wheathampstead) Ltd in Hertfordshire, told C+D: "Key to independent pharmacy is the relationship with patients and you don't get that with a dispensing machine."

"Yes it would make medicines more available, but would it make them more accessible in terms of medicines optimisation? I'm not sure it would."

However, technology could also enable pharmacists to cope with the demands of service provision, Mr Shah suggested.

"If people used this technology, they could spend more time on services and talking to customers," he argued. "The robot could do the dispensing and you could spend time doing what the new NHS requires you to do."

The comments came after Mr Shah revealed he had been looking into the use of remote dispensing machines at the Sigma conference in February. He told the conference he believed PharmaTrust's MedCenters, which were trialled in UK hospitals in 2010, could give the sector a vital boost.

The PharmaTrust machines use a video link to connect patients to a pharmacist, who is able to oversee dispensing. The robots stock up to 2,000 medicines and cost around £50,000.