Lloyds Pharmacy

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Lloydspharmacy (UK) is a community pharmacy operator in the United Kingdom, which owns more than 1,600 pharmacies, located predominantly within local communities and health centres.

Most Lloydspharmacy branches (97 per cent) have consultation areas for customers to speak privately with a pharmacist – more than any other pharmacy chain.

It has around 17,000 staff and dispenses over 150 million prescription items annually.

Each Lloydspharmacy provides a wide range of professional services to the local community, including health checks such as blood pressure testing, health and wellbeing advice and medicine use reviews. Lloydspharmacy branches have completed more than 2 million free Type 2 diabetes screening tests since 2003, with 75,000 people referred to their GP as a result of these checks. Over 1.8 million blood pressure tests have also been completed to date.

Overview

Lloydspharmacy is the trading name of Lloyds Pharmacy Limited, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Celesio AG (previously called GEHE AG), a leading healthcare provider with business across Europe and in Brazil.

Celesio AG purchased AAH plc (the UK’s leading pharmaceutical wholesaler) in 1995, and then in 1997, acquired Lloyds Chemists PLC, which at the time had 902 pharmacies. Together with AAH’s 350 strong Hills Pharmacy network, this took the combined group to over 1300 pharmacies. Lloyds Pharmacy was formed in March 1998 and has now grown to over 1600 pharmacies within the UK.

AAH is now the pharmaceutical wholesale division of Celesio in the UK.

History

Lloyds Chemist began in 1973 when Allen Lloyd purchased his first pharmacy in Polesworth, Warwickshire, England, UK. It is estimated he made a £32 million fortune from the Lloyds Pharmacy empire.

The Head Office is located at Sapphire Court in the Walsgrave Triangle Business Park in Coventry, England

Lloydspharmacy used to broadcast a live radio station (Lloydspharmacy Live!) within its stores; presenters included ex-BBC Bruno Brookes. This radio station was shut down on Wednesday 29 February 2012, to cut costs.

Lloydspharmacy is known through the strapline "healthcare for life."

A close association with Diabetes UK has developed due to Lloydspharmacy completing more than 2 million diabetes tests [free in-pharmacy] so far in the UK.

Celesio is currently rolling out the Lloydspharmacy brand across its 2,200 own European pharmacies. Branches are also being transformed to reflect a new concept of pharmaceutical healthcare. The European Pharmacy Network (EPN) concept includes a central ‘Health Bar’ with touch screens for detailed product information, consultancy rooms and interactive communication technology.

As part of the EPN transformation, pharmacies offer free, enhanced services for a range of conditions including skin health and pain management. Innovative technology has also been introduced to provide customers with personalised skin health information. Many of the stores now offer a digital skin analyser along with touch-screen tablets that provide condition and product information. In the UK, around 50 Lloydspharmacies have already implemented the new concept.

In November 2013 the Daily Telegraph reported that "The prices of more than 20,000 drugs could have been artificially inflated, with backhanders paid to chemists who agreed to sell them". In particular it was alleged that Lloyds was charging the NHS £89.50 for packets of cod liver oil, when other suppliers could provide it for £3.15. NHS Protect had mounted an investigation.[1]

In December 2013 it was involved in a case where Quantum Pharmaceutical was fined more than £380,000 by the Office of Fair Trading over a cartel arrangement in which it carved up some of a multimillion-pound market in prescription drugs for care homes with Lloyds Pharmacy.[2] Lloyds brought the case to the attention of the OFT so is not expected to pay a fine.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Telegraph drug price investigation: summary". Daily Telegraph. 4 November 2013. Retrieved 13 December 2013. 
  2. ↑ "Drug firm fined for care homes 'cartel'". Health Service Journal. 13 December 2013. Retrieved 13 December 2013. 

External links

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