Boots on the ground at hospital pharmacy

Guy’s and St Thomas’ has launched a new outpatient pharmacy service with Boots.

Boots takes over operations at the two existing outpatient pharmacies at Guy’s Hospital and St Thomas’ Hospital from this week. These pharmacies were previously run by Lloyds.

The location of the pharmacies will remain the same, but the promise is a faster service with shorter queueing times. Additional seating has been installed at Guy’s Hospital for patients and carers waiting for their medicines.

In addition to running the two hospital pharmacies, Boots has set up a separate pharmacy and distribution hub for patients of the Trust.

This includes a service for some eligible patients, in consultation with their clinical team, to deliver medicines to their home or to one of a list of approved Boots pharmacies closer to where they live.

This is available for eligible patients across the five hospitals of the Trust (Guy’s, St Thomas’, Evelina London, Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals).

The outpatient hospital pharmacies at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals currently dispense 995 medicines a day, which equates to over 360,000 medicines for more than 180,000 patients each year.

The new hub will support the busy hospital pharmacies, providing additional resources to enable them to run a faster, safe and confidential service for all patients.

Keith Thompson, chief pharmacist and clinical director for pharmacy and medicines at Guy’s and St Thomas’, said: “We’re delighted to work with Boots as the new providers of our outpatient pharmacy services.

“It’s really important to us that our patients get their medicines appropriately and in good time, and the new service should provide a good experience for our patients and carers.”

Ashley Littlewood-Miller, national hospitals manager for Boots, said: “Through this partnership, we are committed to enhancing patient experience and look forward to providing care and support for patients through the outpatient pharmacy.”

Pictyred top (left to right): Ashley Littlewood-Miller and Jon Lake of Boots, with Trust staff Oscar Ruiz, Mars De-Young, Asia Rashed, Kirsteen Docherty, Marc Swiecicki, and Keith Thompson (Picture: Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust)