Secret Potions
Multi-site community group
5–6 hours of pharmacist time freed per day, per site. Some pharmacies in the group are already at 80%+ utilisation of those freed slots.
5–6 hrs
freed per day, per site
80%+
utilisation at top sites
Find Your Flow · Field guide
Get your pharmacist's time back — and turn it into profit.
A typical pharmacy switching to PharmacyX frees around four hours of pharmacist time every day, converts that into roughly 176 extra clinical consultations a month, and generates around £40,513 of additional service profit a year — per pharmacy.Here's exactly how.
Extra service profit
£40,513/year
Per pharmacy, conservative scenario. Before any benefit of stock control, safer dispensing or workflow efficiency.
Pharmacist time freed
4 hrs/day
Reclaimed from repetitive clinical & accuracy checking.
Extra consultations
176/month
Pharmacy First, NMS, BP, contraception, flu, private.
Not a marketing spreadsheet
These are activity levels we see today
Three PharmacyX pharmacies, three real numbers — the same figures the rest of this article rebuilds from your own assumptions. Skip ahead and run yours
Wilsons Pharmacy
Independent group
4 hours of pharmacist time freed per day, per site. At 50% utilisation that's eight extra clinical consultations a day in every branch.
4 hrs
freed per day, per site
8
extra consults / day
Lakeside Pharmacy
Cardiff
Now delivering 150 IP consultations and 200 Common Ailment consultations every month — a clinical activity level their old PMR couldn't sustain.
150
IP consultations / mo
200
Common Ailment consultations / mo
What this article covers
Three blocks. One outcome.
By the end you'll have a clear view of what PharmacyX would change in your dispensary — and a very good reason to book a demo so you can see it in action.
1
Part one
Pharmacist time → service income.
The single biggest problem PharmacyX solves
For most owners, the binding constraint on growth isn't prescription volume — it's pharmacist time.
Every NHS service the contract now pays for — Pharmacy First, NMS, BP checks, Contraception, Flu — needs a pharmacist consultation. And that's before private services: ear wax removal, weight management, travel vaccinations, minor ailment consultations. Private services carry better margins than NHS work and are entirely at the pharmacist's discretion to grow — but only if the pharmacist has time to deliver them.
And every one of those pharmacists is currently locked into the dispensing bench, doing clinical checks and accuracy checks on prescriptions that, on most PMRs, they have to re-check from scratch every single time.
PharmacyX is built around that one problem: free the pharmacist from repetitive dispensing work, safely, so they can deliver paid clinical services instead.
How PharmacyX frees the time
Clinical checks done once, then carried forward.
PharmacyX saves the pharmacist's clinical check for up to 12 months. If the next prescription for that patient isn't a high-risk medicine and nothing clinically significant has changed, the saved check carries forward. If anything has changed, the system requires a new check. You get the efficiency without compromising patient safety or GPhC compliance.
Before PharmacyX, I'd spend maybe 80% of my day checking boxes. With PharmacyX, I can clinically check what would typically take me about four hours, in about an hour.Healthwise Pharmacy
GPhC
Apr 2026
Apr 2026
AI cannot replace clinical decision-making.
"AI should not replace clinical decision making and professional judgement. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians remain personally accountable for all decisions and actions when using AI."
The GPhC's April 2026 position statement explicitly names clinical checks in pharmacy dispensing systems as an AI use case — and confirms that every single one must still be performed under the pharmacist's own professional judgement. Any supplier claiming AI can replace that check is making a claim directly at odds with the regulator. In PharmacyX every clinical check is performed by a qualified pharmacist; the system eliminates the repeat work on unchanged prescriptions, not the pharmacist's accountability. Read the full GPhC statement →
Barcode-driven accuracy checks remove the second pharmacist check entirely on most items.
PharmacyX categorically will not produce a dispensing label unless the correct product has been scanned. The barcode is the check. For any prescription that isn't a split pack or high-risk medicine — more than 80% of your daily volume — the prescription is bagged and ready to hand over without a separate pharmacist final check.
This only works because of what happens before dispensing begins. Every product is scanned in on arrival at the branch as part of the goods-in process. If a barcode isn't recognised, a dispenser can flag it for addition — but it only goes live once a pharmacist has confirmed it. The moment it does go live, it goes live across your entire organisation simultaneously. One check, at the beginning, shared across every branch. So by the time a dispenser reaches for that product at the bench, its barcode is already in the system, already validated, and the scan will always be recognised.
That is why PharmacyX is the only PMR where scanning the barcode at dispensing is genuinely mandatory. Other systems allow it to be bypassed — overridden by a user who is in a hurry or confident they have the right product. PharmacyX does not. There is no override route.
If you can bypass the safety feature, it isn't a safety feature.
Everything's barcode scanned. It won't give you a label if it's not the correct product. Our near misses have gone right through the floor.Margaret Street Pharmacy
Cloud-based clinical checking.
Because the system is cloud-based, the pharmacist can check from the consultation room or their office — they no longer need to be at the dispensary terminal at all. A quieter branch can check scripts for a busier one remotely, and a superintendent can step in from anywhere. The clinical check is no longer chained to a single physical bench, and the pharmacist who is in consultation isn't blocking the dispensary.
Nothing enters the dispenser workflow until the pharmacist has approved the clinical check — so dispensers never waste time assembling a prescription that's going to be queried.
What that time is worth — in plain numbers
Plug a typical English pharmacy into the PharmacyX ROI calculator — 6 hours/day combined check time, 50/50 clinical/accuracy split, conservative reductions of 60% on clinical and 75% on accuracy checks, 15-minute consultations, 50% utilisation of the freed slots — and the output is the four numbers below.
Pharmacist time freed
4.0 hrs/day
Reclaimed from clinical & accuracy checking.
Extra consultations
176 /month
From the freed pharmacist hours, at 50% utilisation.
Extra service profit
£3,376 /month
Combined NHS & private services.
Per pharmacy
£40,513 /year
Conservative scenario. The figure scales linearly across a group.
Where the £40,513 comes from
A realistic service mix for a typical pharmacy, against the actual NHS fees in force today:
| Service | Share | Consults / mo | Profit / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pharmacy First (clinical pathways) | 35% | 61 | £12,531 |
| New Medicine Service (NMS) | 20% | 35 | £11,794 |
| Hypertension BP checks | 15% | 26 | £4,739 |
| Pharmacy Contraception Service | 10% | 18 | £5,265 |
| Flu vaccinations (in-season) | 15% | 26 | £3,026 |
| Private services (ear wax, weight mgmt) | 5% | 9 | £3,159 |
| Total | 100% | 176 | £40,513 |
Per pharmacy, per year. A group of six is north of £240,000 a year. A group of eighteen — Secret Potions territory, where some sites are already at 80%+ utilisation — is well into seven figures.
Real pharmacy. Real numbers. Hopwoods Pharmacy — 15 months in.
Before PharmacyX
4–5consultations / day
40%of time on clinical services
After PharmacyX
18consultations / day
90%of time on clinical services
I can clinically check in between consultations without leaving the consultation room, without the need to go back and forth checking prescriptions. We've maintained our prescription numbers — doing about 16,000 items a month — whilst improving the clinical services, the profit, and staff are a lot happier.Tom, Pharmacist — Hopwoods Pharmacy
Capacity is only half the story.
You also have to find the patients who qualify. PharmacyX does that automatically. When a prescription is complete and ready to bag, the system cross-checks the patient against the eligibility criteria for NMS, BP checks and the contraception service, and prints a prompt label for every qualifying opportunity. No mental checklist for the dispenser to remember. No qualifying patient left behind.
We've pushed our IP consultations up to over 150 a month and well over 200 Common Ailment consultations.Lakeside Pharmacy
This is the difference between having capacity and filling it.
Run the £40,513 against your own pharmacy.
Two minutes. Your hours, your check split, your service mix — the calculator does the rest.
Open the ROI calculator
2
Part two
50% less cash on the shelves in 28 days.
If pharmacist time is the growth lever, stock is the cash lever.
Pharmacies switching to PharmacyX see stockholding drop to around 50% of its previous level within the first 28 days — and some pharmacies see up to 75% less cash tied up in stock with full live stock control. For a typical independent or small group, that single change releases tens of thousands of pounds of working capital — money that was sitting in cardboard boxes earning nothing, now back in the business.
50%
less stockholding within the first 28 days. Some pharmacies see up to 75% with full live stock control.
Why it works — live stock levels, not guesswork
Every product is scanned in and scanned out, so PharmacyX always knows exactly what is on your shelves. That sounds small. It changes everything downstream:
- Picking lists know what is in stock. Dispensers don't walk to an empty shelf and double back. No more "check the back" for a line that isn't there.
- Ordering is triggered by reality, not habit. Stock is reordered only when there is a prescription for an item you don't hold, or stock has fallen below the minimum level you set. Nothing is ordered on a one-for-one basis and dispensers cannot add to the order. For groups, branches can only order what they need, removing the need to set and monitor spend budgets. Minimum stock levels can even be set centrally.
- Goods-in scanning replaces the invoice reconciliation step. Anything missing from the delivery is flagged automatically.
The stock control is really good. It's a closed-loop ordering system — it knows how much we're holding, and it intelligently orders precisely what we need.John Ware Pharmacies
Smart ordering with dm+d codes
This is the technical bit that quietly saves you a fortune.
Every other PMR orders stock using PIP codes — manufacturer-assigned codes that vary by brand, pack size and supplier. Your dispensers end up making judgment calls all day about which version to order, and they get it wrong even when they're experienced.
PharmacyX uses dm+d codes — the same standardised codes the NHS prescribes against and the NHSBSA reimburses against. The dm+d code from the prescription is sent straight to your cascade ordering system. The generic dm+d code for a generic prescription, the branded dm+d code for a branded prescription, every time. No human guesswork, no cheaper-version mishaps, no patient receiving something other than what was prescribed.
Pack-size preferences are built in too — PharmacyX prefers pack sizes that minimise splits, because a split pack costs you four times over: the time to break it down, the white box it goes into, the final accuracy check it then requires, and the reconciliation afterwards.
This also means you don't need to waste time inside your buying cascade software optimising orders — PharmacyX has already done it. The system automatically selects the cheapest version of each product and the most cost-effective pack size before the order is sent. And because PharmacyX works on dm+d codes rather than PIP codes, you no longer need a PIP code licence — a saving of around £400 a year that disappears the moment you switch.
Bulk-buying intelligence
Because usage data is live and accurate, PharmacyX can generate instant bulk orders based on live stock holding and historic usage. This can be used for tendering with suppliers — and not just for your top 200 lines but for every line you dispense. Why not? It doesn't take the buyer any more time, and although suppliers are unlikely to quote on every line, they will where they think they are competitive. That is why pharmacies using PharmacyX are improving their buying margins on the tail, not just the fastest-moving lines.
This ability is particularly valuable when prices start to rise or products go short in the market. You can get ahead of the game, secure stock at today's price, and actually improve profitability in volatile markets — turning a supply squeeze into a buying opportunity rather than a crisis.
It highlights overstock and deadstock — and goes further. For each product sitting idle in one branch, PharmacyX identifies which of your other branches are actively using that product and generates a transfer list so the stock can be moved knowing it will be used there. And because ordering is intelligent — stock is only ever placed when it is actually needed — deadstock becomes a thing of the past rather than a write-off at year end.
Want to model the stock release alongside the service-income side? Open the ROI calculator
3
Part three
The compounding everyday benefits.
Each of these is modest on its own. Stacked together — across thousands of items a month, every branch, every year — they comfortably exceed the headline stock release.
A paperless, token-light workflow
~97%
reduction in token printing. PharmacyX downloads the EPS token but doesn't print it — tokens are only printed for the ~3% of patients who aren't age exempt or fail the Real-Time Exemption Check. Because there is no token to print, all of a patient's items are merged into a single patient order automatically. One order, one bag, one hand-over — fewer split bags, fewer missed items, less paper-shuffling, and a corresponding reduction in toner spend across the dispensary.
Two intelligent picking lists
Because PharmacyX knows exactly what is on your shelves, it prints pick lists only for products it knows you actually have — no dispenser sets off for an empty shelf.
Single-item pick list (~33% of all patients): a separate list covers every patient whose prescription is a single item that isn't a split pack and isn't a high-risk drug. After a quick sweep of the dispensary, the dispenser scans each item — the dispensing label and bag label both print together — and that prescription is labelled, bagged and ready in seconds. No final check required, because the scan is the check.
Multi-item patients: stock is collected and scanned, automatically allocated to a numbered basket. You set how many baskets you run based on the space available. A basket is only created for a patient where all the stock is in hand — if anything is missing it is automatically ordered and the prescription completed once the next delivery arrives. Any out-of-stock item is reordered automatically every day until it comes in, is marked as Not Dispensed, or the prescription expires.
"Staff morale is pretty high within our pharmacy. They've highlighted how good this dispensing process is, how it makes their lives easier as dispensing teams."
Penlan Pharmacy
The safest PMR on the market
Every item is scanned on arrival at the branch. If a barcode isn't in the system, a dispenser flags it — a pharmacist confirms it — and it goes live across the whole organisation instantly. By the time anything reaches the dispensing bench, every barcode is already recognised. That upstream check is what makes the downstream scan genuinely mandatory: there is no bypass route. If you can bypass the safety feature, it isn't a safety feature.
"For me, the biggest thing was the safety element. We have completely minimised the ways in which dispensing errors can occur."
Rhoose Pharmacy
The "people system"
Because PharmacyX is paperless, the system always knows where every prescription is and exactly what stage it has reached. No more hunting through baskets when a patient is standing at the counter. When a prescription is added to the collection shelf, an SMS goes to the patient automatically — numbers kept up to date by syncing with the Personal Demographics Service. Counter time drops. Goodwill goes up.
End-of-day claiming and endorsements
Dispense notifications are sent in bulk. Items needing additional endorsement are flagged, not left to be remembered. A drop-down maximises the endorsed brand/price you claim. Non-exempt prescriptions sit on their own tab so exemption is confirmed (or payment taken) before claiming.
A small uplift in correct endorsements, multiplied by thousands of items a month and every branch, is a meaningful annual figure on its own — and a report flags any fully dispensed prescription without a dispense notification, so nothing slips before concession prices are finalised.
Built-in CD register & integrated compliance
Controlled drug entries flow from the dispensing process directly into the register, with the audit trail GPhC inspectors expect. No parallel paper book. No bolt-on module that doesn't quite talk to the dispensing workflow.
Cloud means live visibility — for owners and head office
Every branch is live to the owner, superintendent and area manager in real time. The reporting suite includes reports that pay for themselves:
- Patients suitable for BP checks and other commissioned services, with contact details, ready for proactive outreach.
- Collection report for today's walk-ins who aren't nominated.
- Fully dispensed prescriptions without a dispense notification — so no concession price is ever missed.
One monthly price — everything included
Everything described above is standard. No modules to bolt on, no premium tier, no feature you pay extra to unlock, no charge that climbs as you get busier. Unlimited prescription items, unlimited users. You provide hardware and broadband — we provide everything else. The only additional cost is the patient text message service, currently 2.8p per text.
"Our rate of errors is pretty minimal anyway. It's almost eliminated now, with PharmacyX."
Pentyrch Pharmacy
What this really means for your business
You can read the ROI two ways.
Take the time out of the rota
Reduce overtime, reduce the staffing buffer you've been carrying because your current system is too unreliable to risk being a person short. A pure cost reduction.
Or redeploy it into service income
Pharmacy First, NMS, BP checks, contraception, flu, private services. £40,513 a year per pharmacy on conservative assumptions. Materially more if you push utilisation where Secret Potions already is.
Most owners do a bit of both. Either way, the 4 hours a day is real, the stock release is real, and the compounding daily wins are real. The only question is how much longer you carry the cost of a PMR that was designed before EPS, before live stock control, and before cloud architecture made any of this possible.
Yesterday we did 1,100 items and it wasn't a stressful day for me at all — and I still managed 8 or 9 consultations. Previously I'd be burying my head in my hands at the end of the day. Yesterday I went home on time, with no stress. No problem.Margaret Street Pharmacy, South West Wales
No pharmacist should be going home stressed.
You can free yourself up for 80% of your working day and still do the things you used to do. But then that 80% you can use to generate extra revenue, reduce your overtime, spend more time with the family. Why wouldn't you?
See it in action
Book a demo with us.
I'm Paul Mayberry — pharmacist, owner of seven community pharmacies in Wales for thirty years, and Sales Director at PharmacyX. I'm also co-founder of Cambrian Alliance, creator of eCASS, and was the first Community Pharmacist Lead in the NHS in Wales. I know the pressures pharmacy is under because I feel them myself, I live them myself — and I created PharmacyX to help reduce those pressures, to help pharmacies thrive, not just survive.
Book a 45-minute demo with the PharmacyX team. We'll:
- Walk you through the dispensing workflow end-to-end, on live data.
- Run the ROI calculator against your hours, your check split and your service mix — not a generic example.
- Show you the stock control screens that drive the 28-day, 50% stockholding reduction.
- Answer every awkward question you have about switching from your current PMR.
The pharmacist time is already there in your business. PharmacyX is how you get paid for it.
