Member Article

Online pharmacy Echo by LloydsPharmacy becomes LloydsDirect and repeat prescription patients reach 500,000

Echo by LloydsPharmacy, currently Europe’s fastest growing online pharmacy, today announces a new name as it changes to LloydsDirect. Since 2015, LloydsDirect (formerly Echo) has allowed patients to order, track and receive reminders for their NHS prescriptions, all in one place, as well as having their medicines delivered for free.

As millions of people were confined to their homes during Covid-19, prescription delivery was a lifeline for many. Demand for online pharmacy services rocketed, especially during the first lockdown last March, with LloydsDirect seeing user numbers increase five-fold and delivering over 12 million packets of medicine in the last year alone.

LloydsDirect’s prescription data shows that, despite the shift to online pharmacy since the pandemic began, some consumers still like visiting a pharmacy in person. In fact, around 10% of orders made through LloydsDirect are collected at one of over 1,000 LloydsPharmacy branches.

The new name reflects the combination of their online service with the trusted network of LloydsPharmacy stores – delivering an efficient, self-managed system with a choice of delivery or collection.

Benoit Machefer, CEO of LloydsDirect said: “We joined the LloydsPharmacy family in 2019 to give our customers a better pharmacy service. We didn’t want to make them choose between online or offline, so we gave them both. This decision was the right one, and what started as a one man operation in a kitchen has transformed into the fastest growing omnichannel pharmacy in the UK.

“Our customers trust the LloydsPharmacy network, and integrating that network with our online services has given our patients unprecedented flexibility and choice. Our new name reflects this, and reaching half a million repeat customers proves it’s a successful model.”

Alistair Murray, Chief Pharmacist, LloydsDirect said: “We are fully aware of the pressures on the NHS and community pharmacists, even more so since the Pandemic hit. Working together with the pharmacists at LloydsPharmacy, we’ve seen more and more people embracing digital healthcare services. But we are still very passionate about community pharmacies and the importance of even just one trip, and what that might mean to a patient.

“LloydsPharmacy branches are a lynchpin in many communities, so the more we can do to ensure patients have all the options they need to manage their health simply and in a way that suits them, the more we can support patients with their health and wellbeing needs.”

Over the past five years, LloydsDirect has made it easier for hundreds of thousands of people to get the medicine they need, when they need it. LloydsDirect began offering their click and collect service in November 2020, giving patients the convenience of managing their medicine, or that of a loved one, online, with the reassurance of support from their local pharmacy team. As well as being able to collect items from over 1,000 LloydsPharmacy branches across England, LloydsDirect patients can now also buy selected over-the-counter items and have them delivered for free along with their medicine.

About Lloyds Direct

LloydsDirect makes NHS prescriptions painless. Patients can use the LloydsDirect app or website to request prescriptions from their GP and get their medicine delivered, for free. LloydsDirect allows patients to order repeat prescriptions from NHS England GP surgeries that support electronic prescriptions, which is over 97%. And LloydsDirect covers all delivery charges, so there’s no extra cost to the NHS or to patients

LloydsDirect was founded in 2015 by people who were frustrated by the hassle of repeat prescriptions. On their mission to simplify pharmacy, they’ve grown from a plucky start-up to an online pharmacy occupying a 33,000 sq ft warehouse in West London. LloydsDirect became part of the LloydsPharmacy family in 2019 and is a proud member of the NHS Innovation Accelerator.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sabrina Johnson .