Key takeaways from The Pharmacy Show 2022
The Pharmacy Show is one of the most anticipated events on the calendar for pharmacy professionals and medical equipment OEMs.
The event provides an opportunity for industry leaders to champion the pharmacy profession. Also, for attendees to learn about and meet with the vendors and suppliers who create the technology helping pharmacists to increase the accuracy and speed of service delivery.
October 16th and 17th, 2022, saw the 15th outing of The Pharmacy Show. According to the organisers, the event attracted over 200 expert speakers and 300 exhibitors.
Talks ranged from the future of pharmacy to exploiting the latest technological advancements, running a successful pharmacy, clinical governance, primary care and professional development.
The event also provided an ideal opportunity for attendees to network with industry peers and build new connections.
What were the key takeaways?
Veritek helps medical OEMs scale their capacity to provide after-sales maintenance and repair services. For this reason, Veritek’s Paddy Collins, a UK Business Development Manager, visited the show on Sunday.
“On my arrival, an array of automated dispensing equipment greeted me. Exhibitors expressed delight that pharmacy equipment took centre stage in the conference hall,” Paddy said.
Here is what Paddy learnt during the day.
Pharmacy robots solve staffing issues
“My discussions taught me that COVID and its impact on staffing levels have reinforced the need for retail and hospital pharmacists to automate,” said Paddy. “As one exhibitor put it, ‘robots cannot catch COVID.”
He added, “When I asked about cost considerations for buying robots, the exhibitors told me the return on investment is clear. They explained that because the growing ageing population relies on pharmacy services, demand is increasing. For this reason, pharmacists must find efficient and cost-effective ways of working. Robots help pharmacists overcome problems with staffing levels. Therefore pharmacists can claw back the capital cost of a robot in two to three years.”
Automated hub and spoke dispensing technology is transforming community pharmacies
“During my talks with the exhibitors, I learnt that a growing number of pharmacists are moving towards a ‘hub and spoke dispensing model,’ Paddy recounted. “In a hub and spoke dispensing model, a spoke receives the prescription, and the hub assembles the order. The benefit to community pharmacists is reduced workload, increased accuracy and reduced cost of dispensing.
Automation is reducing workloads
In the Business Theatre, Joshua Akin-George, Sales Leader Northern Europe of BD Rowa, a customer of Veritek, expanded on the automation theme in a talk titled: ‘Ready for tomorrow- individual concepts for your pharmacy.’
In it, Joshua talked about how automation can improve business processes in a pharmacy. He also highlighted that pharmacists could use the time savings to return to a more clinical role and provide additional support, guidance and first-line services to the growing ageing population.
Automation is a means to unlock a pharmacy’s potential
Elsewhere in the Technology Theatre, Mark Merry and Matt Ellis from Positive Solutions Limited enlightened pharmacists about the technologies available, their applications and their benefits in a talk about how pharmacists can prepare for the future.
Then Tracey Robertson, Product & Technology Director of Cegedim Healthcare Solutions, reinforced the benefits of automation when she spoke about future-proofing pharmacy businesses with intelligent and straightforward technology.
After that, Andy Beesley, Managing Director of Medication Management Robotics, overcame objections when he spoke about the value of automation, how best to implement it and the problems to avoid.
Paddy summed up his time at the show: “The retail and hospital pharmacy automation market is experiencing robust growth, driven by an ageing population and the need to reduce manual labour and increase efficiencies.”
He added, “So it didn’t surprise me that the OEM exhibitors I spoke to all have full order books. From Veritek’s point of view, we can help them to turn those orders into revenues by scaling their installation capabilities. Helping OEMs clear installation backlogs is one of the things Veritek does.”
This blog is relevant to the following Veritek industry sector verticals:
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