The iPhone app – which allows customers to order both repeat and one-off prescriptions – launched in the app store two months ago, following a successful trial in April, Dan Sheldon told C+D.

The 5,000 figure represents patients who have registered with the app and nominated Well as their chosen pharmacy, he explained. He estimated the multiple has dispensed “several thousand items” to these registered users.

“We’ve had more people than we can cope with so far,” Mr Sheldon told C+D at the Pharmacy Show in Birmingham earlier this month (October 8). “That’s like adding a new pharmacy for us in a matter of two months.”

Well is now looking to “scale-up” the operation “over the next few months” by using the extra capacity in its national dispensing hub in Stoke-on-Trent, Mr Sheldon explained.

“We’ve got a scalable fulfilment operation, so the sky’s the limit really.”

“No impact on patient safety”

In response to concerns that pharmacy apps remove the face-to-face care that bricks-and-mortar stores offer, Mr Sheldon said: “It’s not going to be for everyone, so we’re not forcing our customers to use the app.

“We operate to the same standards with our app as we do in our stores and people get exactly the same level of service,” Mr Sheldon stressed. “There is no impact on patient safety whatsoever.”

While “there’s things we can do on the app that we’re not able to do in store”, he said, “we still think stores are going to be a huge part of the future”.