With pressure on the NHS rising, more patients are turning to private medicines than ever before. In fact, a recent survey by IPHN revealed 67% of UK adults are open to using private medicines, with a further 34% planning to order within the next year.
The market has begun to explode, with new companies popping up online claiming to offer the safest, cheapest or most effective solutions. However, while the demand for private treatments is growing, people in the UK are still used to getting medicines from their local pharmacy.
This trust puts your pharmacy in a strong position to increase your revenue through private consultations and treatments, while continuing to offer the best possible experience you’re already known for.
In this guide, we’ll help you get started – from choosing which treatment categories to offer and how to attract patients, to exploring the different prescribing pathways and the best digital tools to implement them.
The Most In-Demand Treatment Categories
The most popular treatment categories have three things in common: they’re centred around everyday problems, they’re not readily available on the NHS and patients are already looking for them.
Patients are educating themselves on everything from condition symptoms to different treatment options. Here are the most searched categories:
- Weight Loss: According to Pharmaphorum, the weight management market is set to reach £1.5bn by 2027, driven by demand as 64% of UK adults are now overweight (Health Survey for England).
- Men’s Health: With treatments now accessible online, more men are discreetly seeking help for issues such as erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation and hair loss.
- Women’s Health: From UTIs and thrush to pelvic pain and vaginal dryness, most women experience at least one intimate health condition in their lifetime. Growing awareness of available solutions is empowering more to take charge of their care.
Pricing Your Private Treatments
When offering private treatments, you have the power to set your own prices. However the market is incredibly competitive, so you need to deliver enough value to justify the price and motivate commitment.
Researching your competitors can help you find an appropriate price, and spot gaps in the market that allow you to add extra benefits into your treatment packages – for example, by adding free ongoing consultations.
Attracting Patients to Your Private Clinic
Marketing prescription-only medicines is strictly regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and prohibits you from naming medicines directly, read through the official guidelines here.
Assuming you’re following the regulations, here’s some ways to get in front of patients:
Your Website:
Your website will often be the end destination for the following marketing tools. Therefore, ensuring patients are able to book consultations or request treatments is incredibly important.
Building a functional website can often be expensive and time-consuming, but our Smart Websites make the process a lot easier – if you’d like our help, click here to find out more.
Social Media:
Posting regularly on your social media pages can help you build a strong connection with your local community, which means patients will come to you when they need help with NHS and private treatments.
Emails:
Emails can be incredibly effective in keeping patients up to date with everything your pharmacy is doing, including the private services you offer.
Finding an email platform that suits your needs can help you save both time and money when emailing multiple patients at once.
In-Store:
Everyday hundreds of people walk past your pharmacy, making it one of your biggest opportunities to show them what you have on offer.
Displaying posters, flyers, or digital screens with a QR code to your website or booking platform can help you attract customers without you needing to do anything extra.
Advertising:
Paid ads are the one most popular ways to attract new patients, but they often require a significant marketing budget.
While it’s possible to run your own ads, finding an agency or freelancer can help ensure you get the most return out of the money in your budget.
Choosing a Prescribing Model That Suits You
Choosing a prescribing model that suits your pharmacy’s needs, capabilities and budget can help you ensure the long-term stability of your private clinic. Here are the options:
Hire an IP
Hiring or training an IP can be expensive, but also gives you the opportunity to offer a full-scope of private treatments that suit what your patients are looking for.
Invest in Patient Group Directives (PGDs)
While investing in PGDs is often cheaper than hiring an IP, they can significantly limit what you’re able to offer, and who to, as you must follow the PGD exactly as stated.
With both of these options, you’ll be responsible for everything from setting up the consultations, prescribing the medications, and advertising at your own cost.
Healthera Clinic
If you’d prefer to begin earning through private treatments immediately, without needing to invest in an IP or follow a PGD, Healthera Clinic’s licensed prescribers handle everything for you – so you can focus on dispensing.
Managing, Dispensing and Delivering Treatments
Private treatments require the same care and accuracy as traditional NHS prescriptions. Ensuring your Patient Medication Record system (PMR) is compatible with your prescribing process will help you give patients a safe experience, whatever they need.
Offering delivery can make patients more comfortable when ordering private treatments. Consider exploring delivery options that include cold chain management, though more expensive, it could allow you to offer your service to a wider area and attract more patients.
You can also include the delivery cost within the price of the treatment, so patients pay for the convenience you give.
Final Thoughts
Demand for private treatments is growing quickly and pharmacies are well placed to not only continue keeping their communities safe and healthy, but to drastically increase revenue while doing so.
Following the steps in this article can make the journey into private treatments easier and more rewarding for you and your patients.
If you’d like our help getting started, you can find more information on our website.
