Dr Charlotte Norton
The Slimming Clinic, Bournemouth
"It’s of significant benefit to both patients and our doctors. It gives the patient more control, they can see when their delivery is coming and manage it themselves, and doctors can be confident patients’ needs are being met while operating remotely. You can support a customer on the other side of the country over the phone or webcam and have the medication sent to their door...”
Providing a national service overnight
A slimming clinic that provides personalised weight loss programmes led by a doctor says it was able to transfer into a nationwide service ‘almost overnight’ thanks to electronic prescribing via CloudRx.
Dr Charlotte Norton MBBS BSc (Hons), Medical Director of The Slimming Clinic , said the technological advances of remote prescribing has allowed the clinic to grow its business and reduce overheads. The entire team now works remotely, and the company has closed all 24 of its shop-front clinics.
She said: “Electronic prescribing is a huge asset to independent practitioners because it gives you the ability to write a prescription anywhere and at any time, whether that’s in a consultation room or home. Turning to electronic prescribing allowed us to provide a national service almost overnight. We now have a huge geographical reach with no limits as to where we can send the medication, which is especially important in expanding our business. We can support a customer on the other side of the country over the phone or webcam and have the medication sent to their door.”
Dr Norton added that CloudRx’s specialist service, which also facilitates the delivery of medication that needs to be kept cold, has also made it easier for patients.
She said: “We’ve had great feedback from patients. Our medication is not something you can get in all pharmacies, so patients previously had to come into the clinic to collect their prescriptions. It’s far more convenient because now they don’t have to leave their house. They can see when their delivery is coming and manage it themselves.”
She added: “Many of our patients are prescribed medication that needs to be kept cold. Even when they could come into the clinic to collect their prescriptions, they still had to find a way to transport it home as quickly as possible to maintain the cold chain. CloudRx’s specialist delivery removes this added pressure.”
She added: “Our doctors have found the system easy to use. The team at CloudRx have been very quick to respond to any queries from us. We can be confident patients’ needs are being met while operating remotely. We are extremely happy with the service.”
Dr Norton said the adoption of digital prescriptions has driven the business to embrace telemedicine and look at more ways to use technology to support its patients, such as sending digital stethoscopes out to patients so that doctors can listen to their bodies remotely.