A Pharmacy Consultant who is a Practising Pharmacist.

 

Do I need a pharmacy consultant if I already have a solicitor and an accountant?

Often yes, because a solicitor and an accountant do not usually cover the NHS contract or the way the pharmacy runs. Between them they will not usually take on the ICB application in England, the stock, the rota, or whether the branch still works on the Monday after completion. RSB Consulting handles that side and keeps your other professionals moving in step, so one strand does not stall another.

 

Do I need NHS approval to change the ownership of my pharmacy?

In England, if the legal identity of the contractor changes, yes - the incoming owner must apply to the ICB before the change takes place. That covers a sole trader selling to another person, or a business moving into a limited company. Selling shares in the company is different, because the contractor does not change, though the ICB must still be told about a new director or superintendent pharmacist. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland differ. On a change of ownership the GPhC must also be notified, within 28 days.

 

Can I move my pharmacy to a different location?

Yes in many cases, but in England it is an application to the ICB, not a decision you take alone. The usual route is a no significant change relocation, normally within the same Health and Wellbeing Board area, or into a neighbouring one. The tests are whether the new premises would be significantly less accessible to the patients who use you now, whether local arrangements would change significantly, and whether there would be significant detriment to proper planning.

 

My pharmacy is losing money - where do I start?

Start by finding out where the money is going before you change anything. It is usually some combination of dispensing workflow, stock and buying, staffing cost against the hours you open, and clinical services running well below what the site could deliver. RSB Consulting looks at the numbers and the dispensary floor first, and puts the findings in writing, with the fixes ordered by which has to come first.

 

What happens to my staff if I sell the pharmacy?

If you sell the business itself, the staff usually transfer with it under TUPE, on their existing terms. A share sale works differently, because the employing company does not change and nobody transfers anywhere. Where TUPE does apply, the employees have to be informed, and consulted if measures are planned, before the transfer, and that is easy to leave too late. Your solicitor deals with the legal detail. The practical work is deciding who tells the team, and when.

 

Is it safe to use AI in a pharmacy?

Yes, provided it stays away from clinical decisions and away from patient data it has no reason to see. The safe uses are administrative: scheduling, reporting, and moving information between systems you already run. Anything involving clinical judgement stays with the pharmacist. RSB Consulting builds automation inside approved systems rather than alongside them, and the sensible way in is one repetitive task, watched by a person until it has proved itself.

 

What happens if my pharmacy cannot pay its debts?

The first task is to establish where the NHS contract stands, because continuity of that contract decides most of what follows. From there the options separate into a solvent sale, a restructuring, and a formal insolvency process run by a licensed insolvency practitioner. Rajkamal Singh Bhatti was Superintendent Pharmacist of a national group of 120 branches and took it through insolvency and sale.