Royal Mail Health can now deliver NHS prescriptions – if you need drugs, your regular Postie can delivery them for free if you order from online chemist Pharmacy2U.
This will be an amazing service for many, download the Royal Mail Health app or visit online at www.royalmail.com/health/pharmacy2u and Pharmacy2U will order and receive your prescription from your GP and dispense your medication. Royal Mail then will deliver your prescription through your letterbox for free It doesn’t cost you or the NHS any extra.
There’s only one issue that I can see with this service, and that’s for the minority that don’t have smartphones or use the Internet – generally the very elderly and most vulnerable in society. For those that are tech enabled however it all sounds fantastic to get drugs by mail rather than having that trip to the chemist just to find that your NHS prescriptions either haven’t arrived yet or aren’t ready for collection.
The greatest thing about this service isn’t getting your drugs delivered, it’s that Royal Mail launched same day deliveries for some Pharmacy2U medication and healthcare products – initially via the Chemist Direct brand. The more same day services Royal Mail sell, the faster access to same day delivery will trickle down to be available to small businesses in the same way that Sunday deliveries have become more widely accessible.
NHS prescriptions market size
Drugs are big business, the UK prescription market is growing 3.5% year on year with 5% of prescriptions now online, according to NHS figures. There is increasing patient demand for access to medicines delivered direct to people’s homes, reinforced by changes in online shopping behaviours in the last two years, which Royal Mail will support for both online and local community pharmacies.
Royal Mail already has a strong presence in the healthcare market, delivering the majority of prescriptions which are ordered online. Royal Mail understands the importance of being able to guarantee the reliable and safe delivery of medicines to ensure patients get the medicines they need at the right time. Royal Mail’s partnership with Pharmacy2U works in tandem with the focus it is bringing to local community pharmacies through Charac, the NHS-integrated, one-stop platform for independent community pharmacies. Charac provides community pharmacies with digital NHS prescription ordering and consultation capabilities.
Royal Mail is one of the country’s most trusted institutions, so it makes sense for us to deliver prescriptions to the nation’s doorsteps. We want to help everyone across the UK access their health needs safely and conveniently, in whichever way they choose to.
Pharmacy2U is an important partner for Royal Mail Health. Working together, we are ensuring that patients that want to order through online pharmacies can do so quickly and conveniently.
– Stefan Kulik, Managing Director, Royal Mail Health
Since our launch in 1999, Pharmacy2U’s constant focus on innovation and customer excellence has seen us grow to become the UK’s largest online pharmacy. We’re always exploring new ways for our patients to better access their medication, conveniently and free of charge. Our partnership with Royal Mail is an exciting chapter in our growth, combining our award-winning customer service, industry-leading technology and clinical accuracy with Royal Mail’s vast network to offer communities across the country even greater accessibility and choice for their essential prescriptions.
– Mark Livingstone, CEO, Pharmacy2U
9 Responses
This isn’t new. Been using Pharmacy2U via Royal Mail for years including through the pandemic. RM have simply added branding and same day service in some areas.
The extra resources that focus on reliability for this service ,will inevitably detract from the regular mail,
Or put another way this needs to be 100% reliable
Not just 99%
Or someone could suffer health issues not just inconvenient non delivery
ive been using P2U, for a year or so now. all delivered by royal mail – so this is just a microsite on Royal mail and things, by the looks of it.
The next time you pop in to your local pharmacy for some free health advice (that isn’t funded by the NHS at all, yet is being recommended by GPs and the health service in general) just remember that they make their profit from dispensing prescriptions, so using online services is dramatically damaging the future of high street pharmacies.