New £1.5m digital pharmacy powered by robots creates 30 jobs
A new £1.5m digital pharmacy, aimed at helping people living with chronic care conditions, has opened in Liverpool creating 30 jobs.
Now Healthcare Group has developed the ‘Now Patient’ app to enable up to 15 million people living with long-term health conditions such as cancer, diabetes and lung disease, to get free delivery of their repeat NHS prescriptions across the UK.
The NHS approved service will be able to dispense around 500,000 prescriptions per month and will be utilising the latest robotic technology to help smooth the distribution process.
Lee Dentith, founder and CEO of Now Healthcare Group said:“The NHS is evolving, and digital innovation is crucial to offering patients quality care and choice. 15 million people in the UK are suffering with chronic conditions, and Now Patient enables them to be empowered to manage their own healthcare needs and to reduce the strain on our country’s overstretched health services.
“We are the first and only tele-health company in the world to have its own tele-pharmacy, which has been kitted out with the optimum robotic technology to streamline processes and service and fulfil medicines for thousands of NHS patients.”
Sue Weir, CEO of Liverpool based health insurer Medicash added: “Since our investment in Now Healthcare Group last year, we’ve been proud to work alongside them in driving this new technology to market. This new tele-pharmacy is another first for the City of Liverpool, which not only brings new jobs with it, but will also make it easier for tens of thousands of people to get access to the repeat prescriptions they need without having to regularly take time off work to visit their doctor and collect their prescription.”
NHS chronic care patients can simply nominate Now Patient as their NHS pharmacy to get free delivery of their repeat prescriptions nationwide. NHG has agreed a contract with the NHS to ensure they deliver the same quality service for the whole of England.
The app is free to download, available on iOS and Android, and includes smartphone-based video appointments with NHS trained GPs, medical adherence platforms to help users manage their medicine usage and repeat prescription services offering free medicine delivery.
Last year, the Now Healthcare Group became the UK’s first digital health provider to be assured by the Care Quality Commission to meet all requirements within the new enhanced digital guidelines, with no areas for improvement.
