Available across “virtually all” Lloydspharmacy branches in England, the service allows patients to order and receive their repeat and acute prescriptions more quickly than they were able to under the previous Lloydsdirect delivery service.
Under the service, Royal Mail can deliver standard medicines in 48 hours, while refrigerated and controlled medicines can be posted to patients in just 24 hours, Lloydspharmacy wrote on its website.
In March, Lloydspharmacy partnered with Royal Mail to pilot the service for three months, making it available to patients in London and some parts of south east England.
Following the trial’s completion, the multiple told C+D in June that it was reviewing the results and deciding next steps.
A spokesperson for Lloydspharmacy told C+D last week (November 12) that the pilot “has been successful” and the service “is now available across virtually all our stores in England”.
In-branch delivery still an option
Patients can still select same-day collection from a Lloydspharmacy branch – a function the multiple added to its Lloydsdirect app last year.
“With this service, customers can order via the Lloydsdirect app, and can select delivery via Royal Mail or collect from a local Lloydspharmacy store,” the Lloydspharmacy spokesperson told C+D.
The pilot means that prescriptions fulfilled the night before can be handed over to Royal Mail in the early hours of the morning and be delivered to the customer later that same day.
When the pilot launched, Lloydsdirect and Royal Mail said it paved “the way for a same-day delivery service covering morning orders for urgent medication”.
When the pilot launched, Lloydspharmacy said it expected those “same-day” deliveries to account initially “for about 0.5% of our daily dispatches, so we are operating within a safe capacity that does not impact our other services”.
C+D has approached Lloydspharmacy for comment on its current dispatch capacity.
Deliveroo partnership to expand “in coming months”
In July 2020, Lloydspharmacy announced it was partnering with Deliveroo to deliver a range of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines and healthcare products to patients. Initially available from 16 Lloydspharmacy premises, it was anticipated to later expand to a further 24 branches across the UK.
A Lloydspharmacy spokesperson told C+D last week that this service is now available from 37 branches.
“We’re now looking to expand the rollout to around 100 stores in the coming months”, the spokesperson added.
Superdrug launched a new rapid delivery service last week, which allows the company to complete orders for a range of health and beauty products within just two hours.
Meanwhile, in August Boots made nearly 100 OTC medicines available for delivery via Deliveroo.
Earlier this year, Lloyds Echo rebranded to Lloydsdirect “to reflect how the business has evolved”.
