After partnering with LIVI and launching the Reboot Quiz, Boots UK has announced that it is piloting the Doctor Care Anywhere (DCA) ePrescription service in 20 stores across central London.

Its introduction means that patients will be able to have their prescriptions sent electronically to a Boots pharmacy “within moments” of their consultation.

DCA, which is registered with the Care Quality Commission, England’s regulator of health and social care services, offers an online GP service enabling access to video or phone consultations and digital patient records. 

The company, which says it can provide private prescriptions in all countries in the European Economic Area, will be the first one to do so for Boots.

THE LARGER PICTURE

Boots UK has been pushing for the introduction of digital services as of late. At the beginning of the year, working with Public Health England, it introduced an online, interactive quiz in an effort to encourage people to take more action to become healthier.

A few months before that, in September, it launched a pilot of an in-store digital GP consultation service with Swedish startup LIVI, known as KRY in the Nordics.

This follows the health and beauty retailer’s appointment of Richard Corbridge, former chief digital and information officer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and chief information officer of the Health Service Executive in Ireland, as director of innovation.

ON THE RECORD

“We know our patients want convenient, simple solutions to manage and take control of their health. This new service makes for a modern pharmacy experience, using digital technology to seamlessly link GP consultations and prescriptions with our pharmacies,” said in a statement Richard Bradley, pharmacy director at Boots UK.