A YouTube documentary series taking an in-depth look into community pharmacy released a new episode last month on integrating private services with NHS services.

The free search engine platform for pharmacy services MediReach has created the ‘Pills and Deals: Life Behind The Counter’ series to explore what the current landscape is like in community pharmacy.

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Its latest episode, released on November 17, sees The Pharmacist Cooperative founder Tohidul Islam and MediReach co-founder Olatayo Komolafe visit London community pharmacy Totty Pharmacy where owner Samson Akere shares how he has developed new revenue streams while still serving the local community.

Akere explained how operating as a private travel vaccination clinic has helped serve his local area, as he has understood his demographic and their needs.

“The key concept should always be to provide value to your customers or your clients, [pharmacies] shouldn't just do things for the sake of it,” he said.

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Akere added that he “didn’t find it challenging” to integrate these private services with his NHS services as “it was something that I had seen being done from day one when I did my training”.

“Because I started at that level of ‘this is something that can be done’, it was hard for me to see in any other way,” he said.

His local outreach work has seen the pharmacy partner with fitness organisation PureGym and local Sainsbury’s shops to give out health advice at their location to raise awareness of the services it provides.

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And he shared how the role of a pharmacist has changed “exponentially over the past 10 years” as “the UK's healthcare system is now tapping into the skill sets of pharmacists”.

He pointed to the introduction of MPharm students completing their independent prescribing (IP) qualification as a way this evolution will continue.

Patients not a “statistical number”

The first episode of the series, launched on August 11, sees Saltdean pharmacy owner Dervis Gurol share some of the struggles facing pharmacies and how he approaches providing healthcare to the community.

Gurol, who runs Healthy U Pharmacy, openly debated with Islam and Komolafe that currently owning a pharmacy is not “fruitful” or “satisfactory” but it is important to “adapt and carry on”.

“Dispensing doesn't make any money anymore,” said Gurol. “We're under stress. We've got loads of medicine shortages.”

“130 to 200 different lines are always in and out of stock, and the price is fluctuating, and you don't know what's going on. That's been one of the worst challenges,” he added.

As well as discussing the role of locums in pharmacy, Gurol spoke about the funding issues plaguing the sector as he claimed that between 2016 and 2024, there has been a “40% real-terms income loss”.

“What you need to do is take that conversation to somebody that you can have it with, which is not the contractor, [but] the Department of Health and Social Care (DH),” he added.

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But his approach to offering additional services such as ear wax removal and weight loss has not solely been driven by attracting new income into his pharmacy, but through getting to know his patients and what they actually need.

“I never gave a thought that somebody else may want to…come after my patients, because I've actually never seen them as a prized possession. I don't see them as a statistical number,” he said.

“I deliver a patient-centred care approach. I’ve got over 4,000 regular patients that use us [and I’m] probably on first-name basis with 3,500 of them,” he added.

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“I love my patients. I love my community,” he said. “I do the best I can for them, and I'm always there for somebody when they need something.”

The next episode of the ‘Pills and Deals: Life Behind The Counter’ series will be released on February 2 2025.