Promotion


IN THeSe MOST uNCeRTaIN aND CHaLLeNgINg OF TIMeS, ONe THINg HaS BeCOMe CLeaR, NOT ONLy TO THOSe OF uS WHO SuppORT THe INDuSTRy BuT aLSO TO THe puBLIC aT LaRge


Contractors must focus on purchase profit


p


harmacy has proven, if anyone was in any doubt, just how vital a part of the primary care


network it is; further highlighting the pivotal role it plays for our communities and identifying countless examples of where pharmacy can do more to support the wider NHS.


But despite the additional focus that recent events have brought about, the future for community pharmacy remains bleak. Chronic under-funding from government has continued and whilst there have been warm words, this has yet to translate into additional cash. The recent ey report into community pharmacy funding adds to the sector’s woes, highlighting significant cash shortfalls, and predicting a completely unsustainable network, with over 70 per cent of the network being in deficit by 2024.


So what can contractors do? Well, for one thing, when reviewing the new five-year funding contract for 2020/21, approximately 31 per cent of the global sum relates to the retained margin target. purchase margin is the margin made when pharmacies are able to purchase medicines for NHS patients at prices below those at which the NHS reimburses them for those medicines.


Maximising this margin requires contractors to be as informed as possible with regard to their commercial arrangements with


26 - pHaRMaCy IN FOCuS


wholesalers. We have talked for some time now about the opacity in the uK medicines supply market, which is at best unhelpful to the pharmacy contractor and - at worst - intentionally misleading. There is a growing trend and desire from contractors to see a more transparent and open market, where pricing is netted down based upon members’ individual and bespoke commercial terms that they have with the wholesalers, particularly when an


forward. at Cambrian alliance group, we are uniquely placed to ensure that we shine a light on the complexities of medicines supply and that we not only develop new methods and features to ensure simplicity, but also help contractors to maximise their purchasing profits.


In an industry first, e-CaSS now reports on the savings that have been achieved and can compare these to other Cambrian alliance group


‘At Cambrian Alliance Group, we are


uniquely placed to ensure that we shine a light on the complexities of medicines supply and that we not only develop new methods and features to ensure


simplicity, but also help contractors to maximise their purchasing profits’


automated buying platform such as e- CaSS is being used.


using an automated buying platform will save contractors both time and money. a pharmacy dispensing in the region of 7,000 items a month would need to calculate near to 84,000 price comparisons manually to ensure that they were buying effectively over the month.


Control, transparency, and purchasing validation have become our watchwords. Increasingly, our role must be to move this agenda


members through benchmarking. The ability to benchmark against other similar-sized pharmacies, will allow members to make changes to their existing supplier selections and also take advantage of an increasingly sophisticated set of features.


We are particularly pleased to be able to announce the launch of our automated threshold monitoring function for contractors. If you need


to ensure targets are achieved and that you maximise buying settings upon achieving these targets, e-CaSS will notify you when certain values have been reached, by supplier and by category. This is of particular importance to support both changes to your settings once targets are met, but also if it looks likely that a target will be missed.


This development comes as part of a suite of new features, made available by the new self-service, web-based version of e-CaSS. Other features include the ability for contractors to manage their own supplier settings directly as well as a new feature that supports permissions-based ordering for owners, who may not always be in their shop.


at a time when we have seen unprecedented and record levels of price concessions granted, the volatility in the market has never been greater. Simple features, such as the ability to block all orders over tariff, have become a must.


at Cambrian alliance group we have always been confident about our supplier pricing and this tool gives us a further opportunity to be completely transparent with our members and give them the assurance they need that with e-CaSS they are buying better.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48