Delia Aragon's branch at Melrosegate, York has access to two private prescribers via webcam, as part of the company-wide independent prescribing service (see video below).

The service was rolled out to all Whitworth branches around August 2017, following a pilot in Ms Aragon’s pharmacy the previous year, she told C+D last month (January 25).

Patients are given the opportunity to have a confidential discussion with an independent prescriber via a webcam in a consultation room, if they appear to have an ailment that cannot be treated in-store by a pharmacist, such as impetigo or tonsillitis.

Patients can speak to one of two independent prescribers, who work as relief pharmacists across all 35 Whitworth branches.

There is usually a five-minute wait, Ms Aragon said, as the independent prescriber installs themselves in another pharmacy’s consultation room, from which they speak to the patient over webcam.

Either a pharmacist or a member of pharmacy staff can assist the independent prescriber by conducting a sore throat test on the patient before the consultation, if necessary.

"If our independent prescriber is happy to prescribe something, they will fax me over the prescription," Ms Aragon added.

Patients pay £10 for the private consultation, plus the price of any medicine prescribed, she explained.

Students embrace service

The service is popular with students at York’s two universities – "especially [for] infections and the morning-after pill" – as the waiting times to see an on-campus GP are "horrendous", Ms Aragon said.

The pharmacy gets "a lot of students [visiting] everyday" since the local council stopped the area's emergency hormonal contraception (EHC) service, she said.

The EHC pill is £5.50 cheaper via the independent prescriber service than the £25 it costs to buy over the counter, "so they [also] save a bit of money", she added.

No bonus this year

Though the funding cuts in England have motivated the Whitworth chain to offer more private services, it has meant that staff across the business "won’t have any bonus this year", Ms Aragon said, which was typically "2% or 4% of your salary".

In addition, "we won't be investing this year in technology like robots, because of the cuts", she said.

Funding pressures are also affecting Whitworth delivery drivers, who "may have to share branches" and deliver to homes twice a week, instead of daily, she said. "But this is better than cutting staff in the pharmacy."

While the pharmacy’s free medicines delivery service may "need to be reorganised a bit", Ms Aragon said she is "not at all" considering stopping free deliveries altogether.

"It’s an essential service, to accommodate people who are not able to come to the branch," she explained.

See inside the Melrosegate branch: