The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7224 p701
16 November 2002

This article
Reprint
Photocopy

News summary

Pharmacist seeks to promote idea of co-location with GP surgeries

Pharmacist Hiren Satra has established a company that seeks to promote the co-location of pharmacies with general practitioners' surgeries.

Mr Satra told The Journal that since the National Health Service is clearly moving from commodity-based to service-based models of payment, co-location makes greater sense from both a financial and professional point of view.

"We have scanned the NHS horizon and it is clear that the Government wants to move to a patient-centred service. Co-location can reduce the fragmentation that results from an increasing number of prescribers being introduced."

Mr Satra is employing a pharmacy consultant who has worked on relocations in the past. The company's aim is to find GPs who are interested in having a pharmacy located within their premises and either to establish a new pharmacy, if possible, or to acquire and relocate an existing business. The pharmacies would be owned by Mr Satra's company. GPs are told that they can make savings from extra income, operational efficiencies, savings on medicine costs and help with medication reviews. Mr Satra has already established one surgery-based pharmacy in Hertfordshire.

Questioned as to whether co-located pharmacies could maintain their front-of-shop business, Mr Satra said: "We are not interested in boosting front-of-shop sales. We are interested in capturing NHS market share as the NHS moves into services."

Mr Satra and his wife Chetna, an industrial pharmacist who is a partner in the business, were featured in GP magazine earlier this week, having advertised in the magazine. In the feature Mr Satra is quoted as saying: "This business will fit into the future of health care. It will enable GPs and pharmacists to maintain their professional satisfaction, keep their income streams intact and benefit patients by providing seamless care." Mr Satra said that he had received a number of enquiries from GPs as a result.