Imagine walking into your local pharmacy to see a Health Bar in the center that features touchscreens allowing patients to look up drug information.
Dedicated zones for skin, pain and general healthcare provide personalized diagnostic and treatment services. For example, an examination of your skin using digital scanners will allow in-house skin experts to recommend treatments and products for your unique conditions.
Private rooms for consultations, along with interactive communication technology, allow patients to take charge of their own healthcare. On opening day, they even get free skin consultations and makeup sessions.
Does this high-tech pharmacy sound too good to be true? It's not. The Celesio Group, which is based in Germany, has rolled out this concept pharmacy in the U.K. and in Italy. Now, the pharmacy, under the name LloydsPharmacy, has opened in Blackrock, Co Dublin, Ireland.
Celesio serves over two million customers daily in its 2,200 pharmacies and 4,500 partner pharmacies. Its 140 wholesale branches supply 65,000 hospitals and pharmacies every day, with over 130,000 products benefiting a patient pool of 65 million people.
The European Pharmacy Network, which includes the new Ireland LloydsPharmacy, is part of Celesio's strategic realignment strategy.
"We developed a new pharmacy concept under the Lloyds brand and already started trial operations with four first pilot pharmacies," a Celesio spokesperson said in a statement. "So far the results are very positive and highly promising. We will therefore accelerate our piloting efforts."
In Ireland, residents can utilize a single-payer public system, or seek coverage from private insurers. Some of the biggest challenges for those in the public system are long waiting lists for alcohol and drug treatment services, dental services, and even critical services like heart surgery.
General practitioners refer their privately insured patients to specialists for specific healthcare needs. Publicly insured patients are referred to consultants or to local accident and emergency wards.
The LloydsPharmacy could provide tools that will help Blackrock residents take charge of their healthcare. It could also help Celesio to boost sagging profits that have been weighed down by the European financial crisis.
Edited by
Braden Becker
