Prescription delivery is one of the most valued services a community pharmacy offers and one of the easiest to lose money on. There is no NHS funding for it in England; every drop is paid for out of the margin on the items delivered. This guide covers how to set the service up so it keeps patients without eating the business: the shape of the service, the round, the records, and when software starts paying for itself.
Decide the shape before the van
The first decision is not which car to use. It is who you deliver to, where, and when.
- Who. Everyone who asks, or patients who need it — housebound, care homes, MDS patients, those without transport? Most pharmacies start with "everyone" and end up with a round they cannot afford. A stated policy ("free delivery for patients who are unable to collect, and for orders over a threshold") is easier to defend than an unstated one.
- Where. A radius or a list of areas. Five miles from a suburban pharmacy is a very different round from five miles from a rural one. Draw it on a map and check what a full loop actually takes.
- When. Fixed days per area ("Tipton on Tuesdays and Fridays") turns a scattered daily round into a dense one. Patients accept a schedule far more readily than pharmacies expect.
- Charged or free. Free within the radius, charged or unavailable outside it, is the model that keeps the service local. The delivery cost article and the delivery cost calculator will show you what "free" is actually costing.
Routes are where the money leaks
A driver doing 25 drops in the order the bags were put on the shelf will drive twice as far as one doing the same drops in a sensible sequence. Over a year that is thousands of miles, dozens of hours and a lot of fuel. The fixes, in order of effort:
- Batch by area and day, as above.
- Sequence the round before the driver leaves — on paper, in a maps app, or with software that does it automatically.
- Put priority patients (fridge lines, controlled drugs, time-critical) first so the round can be reoptimised around them.
- Give the driver the patient's delivery instructions ("side door", "leave with neighbour at 14, never with 12") so failed drops fall.
Failed deliveries are the hidden cost. Every one is a second visit, a phone call and often a stressed patient. Anything that reduces them — instructions, a "we're on our way" message, proof of what happened at the door — pays back quickly.
Records protect you
Delivery is an extension of the supply; the pharmacy remains responsible for the medicine until it is handed over. That means you need to be able to show, for any item on any day:
- What was delivered, to whom, when and by which driver
- Proof of handover — a signature, a photo, or a documented reason it was left safely
- For controlled drugs, a record of the handover in line with your SOPs, including who received it
- For fridge lines, that the cold chain was maintained (an insulated bag at minimum, and a time limit on the round)
- What happened when a delivery failed, and what was done with the medicine
Paper delivery sheets can do this. They also get lost, are hard to search when a query comes in three months later, and rarely record the time. The GPhC's premises standards expect you to be able to demonstrate safe delivery arrangements; a timestamped digital record with a photo at the door is the simplest way to do that. There is a full guide in proof of delivery for pharmacies.
Drivers: employed, self-employed, or a courier
Your own driver — employed or a regular self-employed contractor — knows the patients, handles CDs and fridge items under your SOPs, and can be trained. A general courier is cheaper per drop for parcels but is not the right answer for controlled drugs or for patients who need a familiar face. Most community pharmacies run their own driver and use a courier only for out-of-area parcels from the online shop.
If the driver is paid per drop or hourly, keep a clean record of shifts, drops and mileage. It makes invoicing straightforward, it settles disputes, and it is what HMRC will want if the arrangement is ever questioned.
Patients: set expectations, then keep them informed
Tell patients the delivery days for their area and what time window to expect. Send a message when the driver sets off. Confirm when it is delivered. Those three messages remove most of the "where is my prescription" calls, and they are the reason patients say a delivery service is good rather than merely available. If you are considering a branded app, "your delivery is on its way" as a push notification is one of the features patients actually notice; see app vs website for when that makes sense.
When software pays for itself
Below about ten drops a day, a well-organised paper system and a maps app are fine. Above that, the arithmetic changes: route optimisation saves miles and time on every round, digital proof of delivery removes the search when a query comes in, and live tracking means nobody has to ring the driver to ask where he is. A flat monthly fee of £30–£50 is recovered in fuel and driver time alone at that volume, before you count reduced failed drops.
What to look for in pharmacy delivery software: route planning, a driver app with patient notes and proof of delivery, CD and fridge flags, live tracking, patient notifications, driver shift and mileage records, and — for groups — branch management. Ask the vendor plainly how deliveries get into the system; some import from the PMR, some take a CSV, some rely on manual entry, and the honest answer matters more than the feature list.
Routly is PharmGrowth's delivery product, built for exactly this round: optimised routes, a driver app with proof of delivery and CD/fridge tags, live GPS tracking, patient notifications and driver clock-in and invoicing, for a flat £49.95 a month. Lyng Pharmacy runs its daily rounds on it.
A setup checklist
- Written delivery policy: who, where, when, charges
- Delivery SOP covering CDs, fridge lines, failed deliveries and safe-leave rules
- Areas batched into fixed days
- Patient delivery instructions captured once and reused
- Proof of delivery for every drop; searchable
- Driver shift, drop and mileage records
- "On its way" and "delivered" messages to patients
- A quarterly look at cost per drop against the calculator