Editorial
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Volume 2012 Number 1
Health Politics
Neil Johnston: Friends of Science in Medicine
Peter Sayers: Confessions of a Frustrated Pharmacist
James Ellerson: $75.5 million in 5CPA lying idle. Why is it so?EPublications
UK Vending Machines Trialled
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Editing and Researching news and stories about global and local Pharmacy Issues | |
Prescription vending machines are being deployed in the UK Sainsbury pharmacy chain. This is being done in conjunction with the normal in-store pharmacy service,
and is being promoted as an additional service for those who would prefer it.
It is not an automated dispensing solution.
Only two stores are being trialled in Sussex and depending on the feedback from patients a decision will be then taken to include more stores in the rollout.
Customers using the service must register and create a unique user ID and PIN. Patients deposit their filled-out prescription form in an envelope and take a receipt detailing the prescription collection time and other information.
A pharmacist checks that the medicines have been prescribed correctly, labels the medicines then places them in the machine with information for the patient on how they are to be taken.
When collecting a prescription, customers sign in at the vending machine using their ID and PIN and any prescriptions due for collection appear on the machine’s screen along with payment details, if applicable. Prescriptions are then collected from the machine’s collection point.
Users of the machine are also able to group family prescriptions together and collect them all at once.
The machines can hold 450 packs of medicine, each of which has a barcode so that the machine can identify it, and all the medicines on a prescription are held in one pack.
Patients needing to access a pharmacist have to do so in the retail environment.
This process may reduce some overheads, but seems to have a limited application as a holding area, to reduce in-store congestion.
Perhaps it is a first step in training patients to use fully automated vending machines.
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Submitted by Mark Coleman on Sun, 15/08/2010 - 15:58.
Dear Sheryl,
This machine is not a dispensing machine - more cabinet for holding finished prescription dispensed in a regular fashion.
The Bluepoint machine is a far superior solution with the dispensing process encompassed within the machine to include video/audio contact with a pharmacist.
It is tragic that Bluepoint failed in the market place because of the lack of vision/marketing expertise of the promoters that did not include those original thinkers that helped to develop the machine.
Bluepoint should have achieved a prominent position in the market place and it is obvious that other opportunists in other countries have hijacked the concept, possibly breaching patents in the process.
Submitted by Sheryl Frame on Tue, 10/08/2010 - 16:10.
Interesting to read of the prescription vending machines in the UK. May I remind you that Australia developed a machine known as BluePoint some 5 years ago, which addresses a very real need in the market, and which has never made it to commercialisation. It begs the question "Why not?"
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