British pharmacy chain Peak Pharmacy has invested £20m in its new headquarters in Derbyshire, which will use state-of-the-art robots and automated systems.
The initiative, named Project Horizon, aims to dispatch prescriptions for 150 community pharmacies across England.
The facility will use robots and automated systems to support the processing of more than 400,000 prescriptions and medicines every month, which totals 20,000 a day or more than 40 per minute. This represents 40% of all Peak Pharmacy prescriptions.
Automating and centralising the process should increase the capacity of pharmacy staff to perform other services, such as giving vaccinations, checking blood pressure and advising on healthy living.
The hub won’t be completely unmanned, containing up to 100 staff, with Peak Pharmacy suggesting it could become a 24/7 operation in the future.
Joe Cattee, managing director at Peak Pharmacy, said: “These are ambitious plans for our company, staff and customers – in the face of a rapidly changing pharmacy landscape.
“This will be transformational for us. We’re investing now to future-proof our business, so that we can continue to provide great local customer service which means so much to us.”
The project comes as a response to caps in UK government funding, which mean that pharmaceutical businesses are having to be more efficient in how they manage the costs of prescriptions.
The building will be designed with the environment in mind, using a combination of energy efficiency measures, EV charging points, large scale tree planting and a bat box to encourage roosting.
The hub is set to open in April 2023 and will replace Peak Pharmacy’s five smaller existing locations in Derbyshire.
