Over recent years, of the retail sectors who have survived the onslaught of Supermarkets, few have needed to embrace change more extensively that Pharmacy.
In previous times the community pharmacy would often find that the turnover split of business would be roughly equal, with about 50% coming from over the counter sales and the balance from the dispensary. The consequence was that much of shop space was allocated to a wide range of product on shelves and perhaps 25% of shop area to the dispensing area.
When supermarkets made their presence felt, traditional pharmacy line sales just fell away and what was left was at low margin.
Pharmacies did have a couple of things in their favour however. These were the licensing restrictions on opening premises to dispense medicines and the continuation of limiting the sales of Pharmacy only items to licensed Chemists.
The result was that there were still real opportunities for successful growth by expansion and redevelopment but the effective result was that most investment became redirected from retail to the dispensing areas.
Volumes of prescriptions increased over the years, sme groups formed and then were absorbed, many Medical Practices amalgamated into Medical centres and the pharmacies, despite setbacks imposed by various acts of government, thrived.
Generally pharmacy is one of the areas that tends to thrive on recession, primarily due to increased levels of prescriptions issued as a consequence of the difficult times.
In most instances these demographic moves have dictated that re-fitting is necessary to provide the facilities for the future.
This has resulted in the consequential re-alignment of interior space form retail to Dispensary and to include more patient services such as consultation rooms, providing medical testing services and taking particular account of DDA Disability requirements by employing such things as automatic entrance doors etc.
These needs point to the requirement for understanding and knowledge on the part of any shop design partner. It is essential that all the issues encompassed in operating a busy modern Pharmacy are accounted for.
Charting the best course through a refit process can be hazardous. The expenditure is likely to be significant and getting it wrong can be very costly – though harder to identify. Most important with the continuing escalation on prescription numbers, is to achieve the most efficient and ergonomic solution for the Dispensary.
Employing the right design and fitting partner is a critical element in achieving an effective refit or new premises installation. The wrong choice could result in long term problems.
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