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Pharmacy-led

Accessibility of healthcare for all has been at the heart of our business from when Jesse Boot first started selling remedies at affordable prices under his slogan “Health for a Shilling”.

Accessibility is still important for us today and we live in a world where information is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our customers want to be better informed than ever before, especially on health matters. Health is one of the most searched for subjects on the internet. Being better informed provides a greater sense of control, of being able to ask questions of healthcare professionals; about the prognosis of an illness, its treatment, side effects and health outcomes. Our customers and patients want ready access to a wide range of information at a time and place that is convenient to them.

In October 2009, we launched our online health information service, Boots WebMD www.boots.webmd.com. The site also provides our pharmacists and healthcare colleagues with a way to give customers additional health information and to build on the legendary customer care we already offer. Some key features of the site include:

  • WebMD Symptom Checker
  • Medicines A-Z
  • Health A-Z
  • Health news and features
  • Helping you to look after your wellbeing

Another health and wellbeing innovation in 2009/10 was the launch of our online Health Assessment tool via boots.com. This enables customers, in the privacy of their own homes to readily assess their risks associated with coronary heart disease and obtain simple advice on lifestyle changes they can make that would significantly reduce any risk factors.

Pharmacy-led services continue to be developed and expanded within our stores, for instance cervical cancer vaccinations. This service, delivered under a private patient group direction, is aimed at women aged 18 to 26 who fall outside the UK Government’s national cervical vaccination programme for 12 to 18 year olds.

Our joint ambition with Macmillan Cancer Support, to reach and improve the lives of every single person affected by cancer in the UK, is very much focused around our pharmacies providing information, signposting and expert support. Targeted continuing professional development for our pharmacists will equip them to support cancer patients and their families. We are working with Macmillan Cancer Support to pilot a range of services and events within the Birmingham area.

Accessible healthcare is the common feature of all these developments, holding true to over 160 years of meeting the health needs of the communities we serve.