Pharmacies may develop into ‘one-stop retailers’ for healthcare throughout the subsequent decade below bold new plans to alleviate strain on the NHS.
The Alitam Group — a personal agency which runs 140 small pharmacies within the UK and Eire — needs to rework Excessive Road shops into all-purpose medical hubs.
Sufferers would be capable of e book a spread of operations, dental care, beauty work resembling breast enlargements and liposuction — and even give start within the ‘tremendous pharmacies’.
Eye and blood strain exams and counselling would even be obtainable on a walk-in foundation below the £1billion privately-funded venture.
The agency is eyeing up empty retail areas of retailers that had been pressured to shut throughout the Covid pandemic, together with Debenhams, Peacocks and Jessops shops, to construct round 500 new hubs.
By 2032, the group says half of its pharmacies ought to be operational, with midwifery supplied in a minimum of 5 cities together with London and Dublin.
Alitam says fundamental procedures will probably be offered free-of-charge on the NHS if referred by a GP, with a wider suite of companies obtainable to non-public and walk-in sufferers.
MailOnline has approached NHS England and the Division of Well being to see if they might become involved with the scheme. It is not clear how the £1bn will probably be raised.
Feisal Nahaboo, the multimillionaire founding father of Alitam, mentioned making pharmacies extra handy will liberate extra time for hospital and GP surgical procedures to see the needy.
He mentioned: ‘Pharmacies have been on the coronary heart of the neighborhood for many years and are ideally positioned to offer the general public with quick, handy and reasonably priced healthcare.
The chemist will see you now: Excessive Road pharmacies may develop into Britons’ ‘one-stop store’ for well being throughout the subsequent decade — providing a spread of healthcare on high of ordinary prescriptions
The Alitam Group runs 140 small pharmacies within the UK and Eire. A type of is Temple Pharmacy in Ealing, West London
‘The infrastructure already exists for pharmacies to ship extra major care companies.
‘Their evolution was inevitable in gentle of the pandemic, which pushed an already-struggling NHS virtually to breaking level.’
He added: ‘We’re rushing this pure course of up and over the subsequent decade will rework greater than 500 Excessive Road premises into state-of-the-art wellness and medical centres providing beauty, dental, and ophthalmological procedures, major care recommendation and prognosis, and dwelling aids and medicines all below one roof.
‘This may dramatically cut back footfall at NHS hospitals and GP surgical procedures, and allow individuals all over the place to entry the healthcare they want far sooner and much cheaper than ever earlier than.’
Mr Nahaboo has appointed businessman Sir Ken Olisa OBE, a former Lord-Lieutenant of Better London and a senior adviser to the Queen, as the corporate’s chairman.
Mr Nahaboo added: ‘Pharmacies are already offering some GP companies, and it’s our intention to increase that providing to its fullest potential.
‘We might be the primary nation whose healthcare system can function on a preventative care foundation fairly than the present treatment care system’.
‘This may enhance well-being, cut back deaths and cut back our residents’ tax legal responsibility with much less hospitals and fewer GP surgical procedures wanted to be constructed.’
Beneath Alitam’s ‘Pharmacy of the Future’ scheme, as much as 5million individuals could possibly be handled within the custom-built ‘tremendous pharmacies’ yearly,
The Group, which solely launched in 2020, estimates that the all-purpose shops may slash ready instances, which have soared throughout the pandemic.
Figures by NHS England present that ready lists for routine operations have hit a document 6million.
Greater than 300,000 of them had waited over a yr — usually in ache — for ops like hip and knee replacements or cataracts surgical procedure.
An additional 18,500 had queued for a minimum of two years — seven instances greater than final summer time.
Every of Alitam’s shops will probably be staffed by nurses, dentists, opticians, midwives, physiologists, and pharmacists.
The place specialist remedy just isn’t doable on-site, it claims it’s going to organize it with companion service suppliers close by for a similar value and wait instances.
Following their session, pharmacies will electronically replace a affected person’s data so GPs are stored knowledgeable.
Appointment instances will probably be stored to an ‘absolute minimal’ and vary from round 4 weeks for breast enlargement to just some days for corrective eye surgical procedure.
The Group’s 100 present pharmacy shops will probably be retained with many upgraded into tremendous pharmacies, relying on their location and suitability for refurbishment.