Pharmacy.Biz News

Numark announces 2011 International Conference

Numark, the UK’s largest virtual chain of independent pharmacists, has announced details of its biennial international conference. The conference will take place in India’s capital city, Delhi, from March 11 to 18 next year and is open to Numark members and suppliers.

The event will be held at the Oberoi Hotel in New Delhi, which is close to the business and shopping districts. Heralded as the most elegant hotel in Delhi, the Oberoi’s exquisite accommodation has a well deserved reputation for excellent service and superb cuisine.

As with each Numark conference, content of the business sessions will be accredited for CPD purposes, but as well as meeting suppliers and other pharmacists there will be a chance for delegates to relax and explore. The two half days of business sessions will follow the theme ‘Shaping for Success’, opened and led by Numark’s managing director, Tony Mottram.

“We have a simple but informative structure to next year’s conference. I am a firm believer that business plans do not have to be complicated; the simpler they are the easier it is to get engagement - and that works for every business," he said.

"The structure of the sessions will be based around five key areas – Understanding Tomorrow, Patient Loyalty, Income Growth, Developing People and Customer Experience. These elements form the Numark ‘jigsaw’ and are the areas we focus our member support to ensure their businesses thrive in an incredibly fast moving pharmacy environment.”

As well as developing business and networking, delegates will be able to discover the cultural roots of the city in Old Delhi and the legacies of its Mughal past on a private tour. There will also be the opportunity to visit architectural and historical sites and explore the city’s warren of bazaars, one of which is over three centuries old.

No visit to India is complete without a visit to Agra, the Taj Mahal (pictured) and surrounding views attract millions of visitors every year. The Numark private charter flight will transport delegates from Delhi for a full day’s sightseeing at this popular tourist destination. This promises to be a memorable day and is included as part of the package. The week will draw to a close with a spectacular Bollywood-themed Gala Dinner in the hotel’s ballroom on the last night.

“This is a chance for all our members to get together both formally and informally. It’s an opportunity to learn more about pharmacy, mingle with people experiencing the same issues on both a business and industry level and return home with new thoughts and ideas to implement," Mottram said.

“On top of this, it will doubtless inject a renewed enthusiasm following a week relaxing and networking in the luxurious surroundings of the Oberoi Hotel. The trip to Agra will be something very special to remember, it provides a unique opportunity to fly to the Taj Mahal. All this, whilst escaping the icy blasts of a winter at home!”

All Numark members are welcome to attend at a subsidised cost of £1599 per person but places are limited and selling fast, so members are urged to book soon. To find more detailed information about the conference visit www.nnet.to/dehli

Enterprising Kirit

Kirit Patel MBE, chief executive officer of Day Lewis Group plc, talked leading figures from pharmacy and the business world through his company's startling growth at HSBC Bank's headquarters in Canary Wharf.

His talk, billed as a 'special entrepreneurs' leadership evening', detailed how he built the company up from scratch, from buying his first pharmacy in Southborough in Kent in 1975 to presiding over a family-owned business pharmacy chain with over 160 branches, the largest independent group of pharmacies in the UK.

Patel talked about the importance of keeping a close eye on the finances as key to any successful business, and respecting his staff, highlighting the balance he has struck between maintaining the two cultures within his company; the “corporate” and “family.”

“I respect loyalty. We have two cultures, the corporate boys and the family guys I brought with me. We have the family office and we have the corporate office and managing the two teams on my board is tough but it needs the old boys and it needs the new boys,” he said.

“People are important. Everybody's important. They might get paid differently but they're all important to me. If they are disloyal - or if you are disloyal to them, more to the point – it doesn't work.”

Lexon celebrates 15th anniversary

Lexon celebrated its 15th anniversary with a convention at Alton Towers, an event which attracted many long-standing customers of the company for a fun-filled day in glorious sunshine.

“We would like to thank all our suppliers who made the day possible and all of our loyal customers who came along to make the day extra special,” read a statement on Lexon's website. “It was a great team effort to make sure everything went smoothly and everyone had a fantastic day.”
Lexon is one of the leading pharmaceutical distributors in the UK with a rapidly expanding international client base. They supply independent pharmacies and major groups in the UK, including drug stores, chain stores and pharmacy groups.

Enterprising Conference

The CAMRx Conference at the Oakley Court Hotel in picturesque Windsor brought together some of the most influential figures in pharmacy to ponder the evolving role of “The Entrepreneurial Pharmacist.” Pharmacy Business attended the event to get a flavour of the debate…

Rajni Hindocha, managing director of CAMRx , kick-started the programme with a lecture entitled ‘Current Issues and PCT and World Class Commissioning,’ which encompassed current issues in pharmacy, such as PNA (Pharmacy Needs Assessment), Quality Indicators - rewards system, Information Governance, PCT monitoring visit and PCT and World Class Commissioning.
His reviewed the ways in which CAMRx’s 330 members can extract extra government funding and looked at how CAMRx can help them gain contracts in an ever competitive marketplace.
Hindocha mulled over subjects such as procurement basics, the procurement process and contract award, going on to confront issues including commissioning, competition and tendering. His portion of the programme also incorporated a section entitled ‘PCT Commissioning Cycle’ which he broke down into four sub-sections; Analyse (segmentation, analysis, prioritisation), Plan (project team, care pathway, market analysis, intervention strategy, stake holder testing and approval), Action (service design, contracting and tendering and implement change) and Review (manage provider, post-implementation review).
The PCT Procurement Process segment of his talk looked at defining and executing appropriate strategies to secure the most efficient and effective services that represent the best value, establishing the most efficient chains to deliver services, ensuring effective outcomes and ensuring compliance with EU legislation. There was also a consideration of NHS competition, its definition and why there is competition. On the issue of tendering, there was a look at tendering decisions, AWP (any willing provider) and the limitations of AWP.
Mike Dent, head of finance at the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, made a presentation entitled ‘Contractors In Peril – analysing errors and payments.’ His talk homed in on topics such as national funding; the Cost of Service Inquiry, Margins Survey, 2010/11 funding, devolving global sum and new funding models. He also looked at how capacity improvement programmes (CIP) work and where pricing errors can occur, what a pharmacy contractor can do to minimise errors, how to read and make use of an FP34 and the national actions to address prescription issues. He detailed how the CIP, introduced in 2007, now process all prescriptions from English pharmacy contractors and looked at high speed scanning equipment. There was also an analysis of intelligent character recognition software (ICR), how captured information is processed through the ‘rules engine’ to determine payment and how some prescriptions are passed to the ‘exception handler’ (human intervention).
On the subject of ICRs he found that handwritten prescriptions can pose the software problems and his slides suggested that it “does not review endorsement” columns. He proposed a range of measures to remedy sorting problems and address high price, high impact errors, such as sort prescriptions for broken bulk, sort items with a NIC of £100 or more and sort “specials”, including items with additional information. His talk also focused on what can be done to help the pricing process and avoid pricing errors. The fees and allowances earned by the pharmacy contractor was given consideration and Dent similarly looked at how practice payments can be determined by the Dispensing Staff level declaration. He pondered how Average Item Values (AIV) are influenced by certain factors, including product mix, expensive item fluctuations, ZD mix, the number of items dispensed and practice payment levels.
Arthur Daines, CAMRx associate director, issued a lecture on teaching staff to reach their potential, revolving around seven principles; Getting staff to be responsible for their own destiny and outcomes, teaching them the idea that everything happens for a reason and a purpose can serve them, that there is no failure only learning, that things do not improve by accident rather through action, that commitment is the key to excellence, that work is fun and that people are truly the greatest resource. His talk also focused on the art of communication, conversation, assertion and aggression, with a 10-point plan to motivation.
Community pharmacist, Gam Amar, supplemented the debate about the entrepreneurial pharmacist by delving into areas such as their typical characteristics (vision, creativity, courage, self-confidence, self-control, good health, sense of urgency), the ability to manage staff (with incentives), cash flow (the bank balance is a pharmacist‘s truth - know it and respond to it), set goals and manage customer expectations. The entrepreneurial pharmacist should possess “a new venture or idea and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and outcome” and “identify a market opportunity and exploit it by organising their resources.” His conclusion was that the entrepreneurial pharmacist should have the motto ‘you make a living 9-5, I make a living after 5.’
To see a video of the conference, visit http://video214.co/play/BSduDbZoE2WCuIH61x1nZQ/s/dark

Reckitt Benckiser seminars a big hit

Reckitt Benckiser (UK) Healthcare Ltd are holding a number of innovative seminars for pharmacists and their staff.

The seminars are about adding value back into pharmacy and really understanding customers needs. A pharmacist's staff are their most important resource and getting them to interact with the consumers in a more productive way has real benefits for all.

One of the seminars was held in Wembley in November and was attended by over 300 pharmacists and pharmacy assistants.

Guests were treated to a buffet dinner and then Reckitt Benckiser sales development controller Trevor Gore gave one of his action packed talks, filled with humour and more importantly useful information which will help pharmacists improve their business.

Gore stressed the importance of understanding customer needs and interacting with them, which in turn brings customer loyalty and hence gives a better chance for pharmacists to grow their business. He presented practical and interactive examples during the training.

Copious and anonymous feedback from the many who have attended in the past indicates that these seminars are always well received.

Communication skills session was EXCELLENT!!

I learnt so much from expert customer care talk

Realised how easy it is to give excellent care by making simple and practical changes

Very enjoyable, brilliant speaker. Made me think much more about my customer care questions

Expert Customer Care session was very good

Expert customer care session was brilliant – very important points and situations I

For further information visit http://www.rb.com/home.

Alliance awards take centre stage

Over 450 pharmacistsand healthcare professionals gathered to celebrate excellence and innovation in their field, at the annual Alliance Healthcare Pharmacy Awards ceremony, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel on November 27.

The awards, now in their twelfth year, recognise the achievements of pharmacists and manufacturers from across the supply chain in twelve categories. Winners were chosen by an independent judging panel of experts from across the industry.

In his introductory speech, Jeremy Main, managing director, Alliance Healthcare, said: “Each year we aim to champion the leaders and inspirational figures from not only our pharmacy customers and manufacturer partners but also the rising stars of he future.

“As the wider roles of both the pharmacist and the pharmacy team become increasingly significant, we felt that this year’s categories allow us to recognise those that have truly evolved their pharmacy’s service provision way beyond dispensing.”
Former England Rugby international Martin Bayfield returned to host the awards for a second year and introduced and presented the awards.

William Hughes and his team from R J Jones Pharmacy in Nefyn, won the top of award of the night – the Pharmacy of the Year.

This pharmacy achieves their annual MUR; provides services such as smoking cessation, EHC, weight management, Chlamydia screening, public health awareness for young people. Every team member of the RJ Jones team attends local community group meetings to raise awareness of health issues and services that the pharmacy provides and they do their work to a consistently high standard.

Other winners on the night included Ray and Fiona Hall of Raymond C. Hall Pharmacy who won the Pharmacy Services and Innovation Award for their ‘Healthy Heart’ campaign which provides a range of patient services, such as a full service cardio-vascular fitness and lifestyle assessment.

Jayne Jones of Prospect View Pharmacy picked-up the Pharmacy Retailer of the Year. This pharmacy had a refit and a new pharmacy dispensing system which has helped to more than double the number of items dispensed in just one year.

The Pharmacy Team of the Year was awarded to Morrisons Pharmacy in Rippon, who were recognised for going the extra mile to provide a great service to their customers, which includes services such as supervised consumption flu vaccinations,
smoking cessation, MURs and a free home delivery service for prescriptions.

Also on the night, over £6,500 was raised in a charity raffle held in support of three charities backed by Alliance Healthcare and its employees: Clic Sargent – Caring for Children with Cancer, Leonard Cheshire Disability and The Prostate Cancer charity.
Chris Martin, Chairman of the Alliance Healthcare Customer Forums, was delighted with the excellent standards of the award entries, saying: “The event would not be what it is today without the continued enthusiasm and efforts of all our entrants. Our pharmacy awards are designed to recognise the key areas that make community pharmacy successful; and we feel
that all of our shortlisted entries are shining examples to the rest of the pharmacy and healthcare community.”

Pharmacies need to evolve

PSNC chief executive Sue Sharpe urges pharmacists to start thinking about how they can transition themselves into healthy living centres.
Pharmacists may see themselves as primarily a dispenser of medicine, but it is crucial they evolve in the next decade and
become “primarily providers of services to patients”, according to Sue Sharpe, chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Services
Negotiating Committee (PSNC).

Sharpe praised pharmacists for embracing services like MURs, blood testing and diabetes screenings, but felt it was important that pharmacists made the transition from relying on the supply function to being service-based.

“The successful community pharmacy in 10 years’ time will present itself as a healthy living centre, and the pharmacy that does not make that transition will not be fit for purpose,” warned Sharpe.

Her view was shared by Mike Smith, chairman of Alliance Healthcare, who thinks: “Community pharmacies that embrace change will have a bright future, those that don’t will be dead in the water.”

Pharmacies already offer a vast range of services to their customers, but the supply of medicine is still the number one priority.

Sharpe hopes that pharmacists will in the future play a more important role in the healthcare service. They should be able to educate and advise their customers medical issues and the supply of medicine would just be a part of this all-round service.

The training of staff should be one of the first steps in pharmacies evolving and Sharpe added that it was vital that pharmacists give priority in training their staff.

“The change required will need substantial investment and that investment needs to start soon,” said Sharpe. “It may not even be primarily financial investment but it is investment in staff.

“The pharmacies that are able to deliver enhanced services are the pharmacies that have empowered, trained, motivated and
used their teams. The command and control approach that some pharmacists have taken has to change to a teambased
approach.”

It would take a large amount of investment from pharmacists to implement some of the changes recommended by Sharpe. However, the PSNC chief insisted there would be funding made available to pharmacists although it will “come with some strings attached”, meaning pharmacists will have to show they are fully committed to doing the work they receive the funding for.

Sharpe was speaking atthe Pharmacy Show, which was held between Oct 11 and 12 at the NEC Birmingham and had a attendance of 4,479 professionals from the pharmacy sector.

As part of a major revamp of the event, there were five free conference streams including the Pharmacy Services Forum, The Pharmacy Business Accelerator and the Skills & Development Forum.

Show director, Michael Westcott commented: “We invested heavily in delivering relevant and timely education that could really make a difference to every function of pharmacy businesses, and given the excellent response from the pharmacy community as well as suppliers, we have succeeded. This gives us an excellent springboard from which to further scale the show next year.”

More than 200 UK and international suppliers reported brisk trading on the exhibition floor which was 27 per cent bigger than the previous year.

Steve Voyse, commercial manager of one of the industry’s leading suppliers, Numark, said: “The first day was the busiest we’ve ever seen.”

Gabriella Dann, key account business development manager of automated packaging specialists MTS Technology, said that leads from both independent pharmacies and major multiples had increased significantly: “We’ve had huge amounts of interest and leads generated. We even made sales on the stand – which we weren’t expecting. We’ve booked a larger
stand for next year.”

The 2010 show returns to the NEC in Birmingham from October 10-11.

Pharmaplus vows to help members through tough time

Pharmaplus held it annual event on November 7, where managing director Hiten Patel promised to support the company’s members through a difficult period in the profession.

Over 350 Pharmaplus members, suppliers and guests attended the annual Pharmaplus event held at the London Marriot Hotel, Grosvenor Square, to celebrate the work they have done together over the year. The evening started off with a few words
from Pharmaplus managing director, Hiten Patel, who told the audience that failure of the pharmacy contract to deliver on its original promises and other things like the responsible pharmacist “debacle” had led to an administrative nightmare for Pharmaplus’ members.

He added: “There is no new money, no new services being commissioned and in fact, a decrease in payments for the prescriptions that we dispense today.

“Make no mistake, to cope on your own with what I have mentioned, you in community pharmacy at present, quite rightly feel vulnerable and very isolated.”

Despite the problems that pharmacists are facing, Patel reminded members of the role of Pharmaplus as their business partner, offering commercial and professional support especially in these difficult times for the industry.

“Pharmaplus’ role is to help alleviate this administrative burden so you can be less stressed and there is a lot of it about in community pharmacy. We allow you to remain focused on building your business.

“Pharmaplus will always try to develop innovative services and will remain diligent and vigilant on the commercial offering to its members but importantly give a commitment to you, that we will continue to create an environment, to enable you to run your core and new business opportunities efficiently and profitably.”

In the past year, Pharmaplus has offered members administrative support for compliance to the increasing regulatory burden in community pharmacy. In addition support has been provided for training and development, CPD, MUR, counselling skills and introduction of non-NHS dependent business such as Making the Most of Medicines (MMM) service.

The team at Pharmaplus also recently launched a new service which gives pharmacy customers direct access to a private consultation service with a medical practitioner from the pharmacy. This helps pharmacists to supply customers with Prescription Only Medicines (POM) in an emergency.

John Turk, chief executive officer of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), was chief guest speaker and he said that he hoped to take the entrepreneurial spirit of the independents and carry this throughout the NPA.

He said: “We must raise our heads above the parapet and champion the interests of independents. The biggest challenge facing us today is the outrageous situation around changes in the supply chain. We meet very regularly with manufacturers and they are in no doubt about the degree of anger and frustration over the chasing of product”.

On the subject of Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) Mr Turk added that “the NPA is delivering the message that EPS must deliver benefits for pharmacists. It must be safe and it must improve what pharmacists do”.

Mr Turk also encouraged independents and multiples to work together to drive change in the industry, likening the independents to the “cavalry, nimble, innovative and fast moving”, with the multiples providing the “strength and muscle of the artillery’s big guns”.

He added, on a positive note, that the ultimate strength of independent pharmacy being “their entrepreneurship, relationship with customers and accessibility in the heart of the community”. He went on to say “the opportunity exists for community pharmacy to lead and take up pole position in the public health agenda”.

The evening offered something for all, with savoury dishes from a distinctive Asian chef to entertainment from professional comedians and dancers. After dinner, Mr Turk embraced the event and danced to Bollywood music, with the rest of the Pharmaplus members.