Royal Mail PLC (LSE:RMG) has launched a new health division that looks to build on the key role that postal delivery workers played during the pandemic and on partnerships with local pharmacies.
Alongside the creation of the Royal Mail Health arm, the FTSE 250-listed group has invested £1mln in Charac, a digital platform for independent pharmacies, and is expanding an existing partnership with the Pharmacy2U online pharmacy repeat prescription service.
Using Charac, pharmacies will be able to provide an online ordering system for healthcare products as well as enabling follow-up consultations and services to be booked.
Last year, a trial was carried out with Pharmacy2U to trial same-day delivery of over-the-counter medicines and faster deliveries of prescriptions to some postcode areas across the UK.
Royal Mail Health is mulling how to roll out these services more widely.
As it already delivers the majority of prescriptions ordered online, Royal Mail said it will step this up a level by building a “local to local network”.
This will be a next-day tracked service, where a local postie will collect healthcare products from independent pharmacies and deliver those to the pharmacist’s local patients as part of their daily collection route, and if necessary return them to the local office for processing and delivery the next day.
Royal Mail Health also said it will “explore opportunities” for posties to check on vulnerable people, ensuring they get access to the care and support they need, with potential partners currently being identified for the intended trials.
One trial in Northumberland will launch in the coming months, working with local delivery partners “to understand how we can best deliver this model so it works as part of the Postie’s existing route”, a spokesperson for the company told Proactive, emphasising that this is still at the planning stage.
“The idea is that Posties can call and check on vulnerable people daily and alert specialist partners if support is needed.”
Stefan Kulik, a former Johnson & Johnson sales director and leader of pharmacy and healthcare at data analytics firm IRI, was hired a managing director of what was called Royal Mail Medical last November.
His mission has been to “[access] and [deliver] the potential of the Royal Mail network to step change healthcare supply chains in the UK”, according to his LinkedIn profile, which suggests the division has a network of 850 staff.
“Royal Mail is uniquely placed to help the nation manage its health more easily, by bringing together two professions at the heart of the community: the postie and the chemist,” Kulik said.
“As one of the country’s most trusted institutions, this is the right time for Royal Mail to build on the support it has provided during the pandemic and its existing partnerships with online pharmacy providers.”