For pharmacists willing to embrace it, Pharmacy First has the potential to open up new avenues for revenue that have never existed previously, while also transforming patient access to a wider range of healthcare services.
Under the scheme currently, seven health conditions qualify for pharmacy services with no need for a GP:
The existing Community Pharmacy Consultation Service will also be under the Pharmacy First umbrella, providing all kinds of opportunity from a service and revenue perspective for community pharmacists.
With that in mind, this blog will provide tips on unlocking these new revenue opportunities with Pharmacy First, highlighting the benefits and providing ways to effectively market the new services to reach the revenue potential.
From a financial standpoint, Pharmacy First provides additional revenue streams for community pharmacies to tap into, so understanding the potential opportunities is critical to maximise profits and experience the full growth potential of the new scheme.
The main benefit of Pharmacy First is the diversification of revenue and removing the reliance on prescription and dispensing services that can sometimes be volatile and in extreme circumstances, unprofitable.
By expanding the number of services available to patients, community pharmacies can access new revenue streams and provide reassurance and stability in a changing healthcare environment.
It can also help to mitigate some of the outside factors affecting pharmacy profitability like changes to reimbursement rates for drugs, or fluctuating costs.
Pharmacy First services can also open up pharmacies to a bigger, more diverse range of customers looking for more general health services that would have previously required them to attend a GP appointment first.
As well as increasing the number of services, the resulting increase in footfall also improves the opportunities for upsells and cross-sells of other services in store.
In order to benefit from Pharmacy First, effective in-store promotion of the different services is going to be essential. Most people likely don’t keep up-to-date with the latest pharmacy industry developments, so educating customers that they can get these services is important.
One simple way to promote Pharmacy First is by engaging in store visuals.
Dynamic Displays are an effective method of creating eye-catching promotions to educate customers about the new services.
They can be used as window displays to promote the services to passersby (which is deal for awareness campaigns and getting more eyes on your offers)
Alternatively they can be wall mounted to promote services to those in store.
Pharmacists can either use the displays for commercial promotions, or to simply educate customers that the services are available, what they involve, and how to enquire about them.
It’s also important that pharmacy staff are well trained and versed in Pharmacy First Services.
Being able to talk effectively to patients creates the opportunity for cross-sells or up-sells of services and over-the-counter medications where appropriate to further increase revenue.
As community pharmacists become ingrained in community healthcare, it follows that becoming more involved in the community itself will create more opportunities for promoting and selling the services.
Community awareness events create ample opportunities to promote Pharmacy First services to potential customers, allowing pharmacists to build relationships with those who’ll be using the services, while answering questions directly.
These events could be held solely by the community pharmacists, but could also be joint events between pharmacists and health organisations or even other community partners like local schools to educate a wider proportion of the community.
Promoted effectively, engagement events can help promote services to a wider range of people.
Another option is to hold community drop-in sessions for anyone interested in the services, but who may have more personal questions and wouldn’t be comfortable in a group setting.
Having knowledgeable members of the team available to answer questions directly is one of the most effective ways of promoting these new services.
Promoting Pharmacy First services in store can help to encourage new enquiries and raise awareness among existing customers.
Digital displays placed around the retail space can be effectively used to promote services to customers and can also be used by staff as prompts to talk to customers about the new services when talking to them.
Ultimately in store promotions will play a key part in promoting and securing bookings for Pharmacy First services.
More than 22,000 searches are made by patients looking for information on “pharmacy first”, while nearly 3,000 are looking for services available near them.
This is a huge pool of potential customers looking for your services that you can tap into.
Creating online content on a well optimised website can help you promote your pharmacy and ensure you appear for these online enquiries.
Services pages, educational articles about the benefits of the service and even testimonials from previous patients can help your pharmacy reach a bigger online audience and experience the revenue benefits of Pharmacy First.
Our updated Pharmacy Services has been improved to align with the NHS Pharmacy First Initiative.
With dedicated modules for Pharmacy First, you can benefit from an intuitive platform that support the delivery of your clinical services.
Pharmacy Services helps you effectively and efficiently treat patients with automated data so you can track service delivery as accurately as possible.
By leveraging systems like Cegedim’s Pharmacy Services, community pharmacies can manage the regulatory requirements and operational challenges that come with Pharmacy First, ensuring pharmacies can enhance their services and boost revenues.
For those looking to increase promotion of Pharmacy First services, Pharmacy Display is the perfect platform for showcasing services and offers in an engaging way.
Messages and campaigns can be fully customised and with our expert content marketing team available, pharmacists can be as hands on, or off, as they want with the content.
Pharmacy First presents massive opportunities for community pharmacies able to realise the full potential of the services.
If you want to know more and need in-depth advice on effective pharmacy marketing tactics, download our Ultimate Guide to Pharmacy Marketing