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AfroCentric INTEGRATED ANNUAL REPORT 2016
76
PHARMACY DIRECT, CURASANA AND
ACTIVO HEALTH (continued)
Strategic objective
Why this is important
Link to Group
strategy
Timeous use of innovative
resourcing methodologies,
processes and tools
Effective use of innovation in business processes can yield diverse benefits,
including cost efficiencies, new business development and enhanced
customer service.
Developing a performance-
driven culture through
empowerment and the
creation of exciting career
challenges for all employees
Pharmacy Direct intends to be successful in the medium and long term,
ensuring the sustainability of the Company and contributing to that of
the Group. To achieve this, the Company recognises the importance of
building a diverse team, including capacity-building of a heterogeneous
young workforce, while always mindful of developing future leaders.
Flexibility and adaptability to
rapidly changing market and
technology conditions
An inculcated culture of adaptability and flexibility allows the Company to
grow the business in new directions to address emerging market needs
and provide added value to clients and patients, thereby growing revenues
and enhancing the customer experience.
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
OPPORTUNITIES
Pharmacy Direct has been in the forefront of a private
partnership to NHI, with the contract to dispense and deliver
medicines to public sector patients in five provinces. The
Company is motivated and looks forward to supporting
government in future endeavours.
Pharmacy Direct is committed to capitalise on the vertical
integration taking place within the Group by taking
advantage of the relationship with Medscheme to grow its
patient base, and collaborating with other partners in the
group to pursue efficiencies and best practice. Pharmacy
Direct has and existing, collaborative relationship with
Allegra to manage scheduling and stock control of drugs,
claims and co-payments. The relationship with Allegra
assists Pharmacy Direct in remaining highly competitive
with reference to new patient registration procedures,
interrogation of dispensing data and claims history.
Flexibility in pricing strategies allows Pharmacy Direct to
attract business through our sustained levels of customer
service and compliance management to patients. The
Company’s patient-centered ethos means that value is
added not only through keen pricing, but also through a
personalised approach to service delivery.
CHALLENGES
One of the biggest challenges to growth and sustainability is
a shift in the legislative environment that may have a material
impact on business operations. Adapting to regulatory
change often has severe shortterm cost implications and can
affect the longer-term direction of the business. For example,
the prohibition of certain products or services. Another
risk is the financial and reputational cost of breaching
regulation and incurring penalties, even if non-compliance
is unintentional. To mitigate these risks, Pharmacy Direct is
diligent in adherence to Good Pharmacy Practice (“GPP”)
and maintains a healthy relationship with regulators to ensure
that impending changes to regulation can be anticipated and
can be provided for.
Pharmacy Direct is dependent on service providers such as
the Post Office and long haulage companies and disruption
in these industries can have a detrimental effect on the
Company’s ability to adhere to distribution schedules.
The business has engaged and partnered with a number
of trusted suppliers, reducing the risk of catastrophic
interruption to operations in the event of a problem with
one service provider. High volume of business transacted
by Pharmacy Direct has resulted in Pharmacy Direct being
a premier Client and which allows for the negotiation of
attractive pricing agreements.
Internal industrial action could be a potential risk with recent
unionisation of the Pharmacy Direct workforce. To date,
the relationships between management, trade unions and
employees are harmonious and do not pose any threat to
productivity.
PERFORMANCE OVERVIEW AND OUTLOOK
Pharmacy Direct adopted a strategy of organic growth,
allowing for a focus on exceptional customer care and
meeting or exceeding the expectations of clients in terms
of service delivery. This approach proved successful as the
Company has grown from a base of 278 patients in 2004 to
the current caseload of between 200 000 and
220 000 prescriptions processed per month. The total
capacity with the current infrastructure is approximately
500 000 prescriptions per month, which supports Pharmacy
Directs committed approach to the Company’s strategy of
growth. The values embedded in Pharmacy Direct’s staff in
addition underpins a culture of customer centricity.
In line with the Company’s value proposition, Pharmacy
Direct demonstrated excellent performance in service
delivery. Currently, in excess of 99.9% deliveries are on time
and regularly updated monitoring and evaluation systems
ensure that this standard is maintained or improved on.
90% of deliveries are door-to-door, with the remaining 10%
being collected from alternative pick-up points such as
postal parcel counters. Pharmacy Direct delivers medication
nationally and internationally. To date no patient has yet
been denied a delivery due to an inaccessible address.