GEHE to build one-stop health centres that include pharmacies
GEHE UK Plc, the parent company of Lloydspharmacy and
AAH Pharmaceuticals, is to build health centres that bring together GP
surgeries, pharmacies and other health and community facilities.
Iqbal Gill, GEHE’s UK development manager, said
that the company had gained a lot of experience through its 160 Lloyds
pharmacies already situated in health centres. “Pharmacies were being
expected to pay increasingly large premiums — key money — to carry the
development financially and yet were often receiving facilities that were
too small or poorly located within the development.”
Mr Gill said that GEHE had decided to develop health
centres itself as a way of raising the profile of pharmacy in health centre
projects. The company had started the process before the Government had
announced in the National Health Service plan that it wanted to see 500
one-stop primary care centres built.
GEHE expects that a potential health centre will
be discussed with relevant parties, including health professionals and
local primary care trusts or health authorities. If a new health centre
is deemed necessary, GEHE will draw up plans, acquire a suitable site,
and build and fit out the premises. The total development period should
take around 30 months.
Building work on the first GEHE health centre will
start at Stretford, Manchester, this month. It should be completed in
10 months. A further 13 projects are underway, of which three will involve
independent community pharmacies. Mr Gill said that the first leads had
been developed from suggestions made by Lloydspharmacy managers but that
the company had made a policy decision that involvement should be open
to all independent community pharmacists. He acknowledged that health
centre pharmacies could be less profitable than high street stores, because
of reduced front-of-store turnover, but he said some independents believed
that the importance of dispensing would diminish in future and that the
provision of services would become more important.
Suggestions had been made for premises to include
fitness centres, libraries, community centres and convenience stores.
One of the ongoing projects in Scotland involved social services staff.
“Anything that adds value to the local community
should not be excluded,” Mr Gill said.
GEHE will initially fund the design and construction
of the premises. Pharmacists moving in would have to pay their own rent,
but Mr Gill said that GEHE was keen to ensure fairness by making sure
that similar rents, on a cost-per-floor-area basis, were negotiated and
that all the occupants had leases with identical break clauses in them.
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