On 30 August, Steve Anderson, PHOENIX UK Group Managing Director, officially opened one of the UK’s largest automated pharmacies.
The facility in Runcorn has been operating since June 2019 and provides Rowlands Pharmacy with a “hub and spoke” solution for assembling repeat prescriptions.
Using industry-leading technology, the site currently assembles around 270,000 repeat prescriptions a month. By the end of the year it will assemble 16 million prescriptions annually for all Rowlands branches in England, Scotland and Wales.
At the launch Steve Anderson said, “At every level, the medicines supply chain relies on automation and IT solutions to ensure patients get the medicines they need when they need them at the lowest cost to the NHS.
By centralising repeat prescription assembly we free up time for branch colleagues to provide support, advice and healthcare services which patients want and need and which the national health services in England, Scotland and Wales are increasingly looking to community pharmacy to provide.
Centralised automated dispensing is vastly more efficient than branch-level assembly.
Implementing our central dispensing solution in such a short period of time is a fantastic achievement and I thank all colleagues from across the business who have worked so hard to deliver this initiative successfully”.