DDA26 Conference Special podcast: MediP: "everything but the drugs"

When the weather gets hot, we all feel like we are working harder - and so does your medicines fridge. But, are you looking after it properly? 

A fridge failure can cost you thousands in terms of lost stock but you can reduce the risk with just a small investment in servicing. 

It will also help to keep the regulator off your back. 

Medicines storage compliance, and infection prevention and control are just two of the many cost pressures facing dispensing practices. 

In our first DDA26 Conference Special Podcast, DDA Communications Officer Ailsa Colquhoun speaks with Gold Exhibitor MediP to understand how practices - and DDA members in particular - can save time and money in these vital areas.

You might also find out about the key fashion trends in surgery furniture. 

So, don't let a fridge breakdown let you down, and don't fall victim to surgery couch-barrassment. 

And, most of all, don't miss out on the special savings from MediP available to DDA members only.

Representing MediP in the podcast are Business Development Manager Luke Hess, Director Tom Preston and Key Account Manager Tegan Howarth. 

Listen in to get a better grip on your surgery costs, performance and savings.

Transcript

Speaker 0:06

Welcome to the first in a new series of DDA conference special podcasts, in which we are speaking to selected exhibitors about their standoffer at this year's conference, taking place on September the 30th to October the 1st. Today I'm delighted to be speaking to the family-run Dr. Surgery Wholesaler and everything but the drug supplier, Media. Now, MedIP are exhibiting in our Gold Exhibitors area, and they will be showcasing their range of products and services designed to support that all-important dispensary compliance and best practice. I'm speaking to three members of the team today: Business Development Manager Luke Hess, Director Tom Preston, and Tegan Howarth, Key Account Manager. Welcome, Luke.

Speaker 2 0:53

Hiya.

Speaker 0:54

Welcome, Tom.

Speaker 2 0:55

Hello.

Speaker 0:56

And finally, Tegan, welcome. So at the time of recording, we're generally enjoying a rather long hot summer. And of course, that's absolutely great after hours. But in the dispensary, this can cause problems with medicines, particularly those that need to be stored in the fridge. And there will be some dispensers here who are coming in in the morning to a rather nasty surprise. So, Luke, what sort of problems do you see with dispensary fridges? And what are the causes?

Speaker 2 1:26

The biggest problem at the moment is that obviously the incredibly hot weather is making all of our fridges work harder and harder and harder. You have such important vaccinations in all these fridges. And a lot of the time, surgery just low pressure to save money, some things fall through the net. Things like fridge servicing on a yearly basis avoids walking in and having a fridge which hasn't been stored between two and eight degrees, which is a complete no-no and will destroy your entire months of fridge supply.

Speaker 1:54

And it's a compliance issue as well, isn't it? I mean, the CQC wants to see fridge records and made sure that medicines have been stored correctly.

Speaker 2 2:03

Time has become such a pressure. And if you just have something easily to have, to give the CQC to say, yes, this is compliant, it's safe, it works. It just makes your life so much easier.

Speaker 2:14

Is it the cost or is it the time, the hassle, the remembering to do a service? What's the issue, do you think, with getting fridge services done?

Speaker 2 2:22

It's a great question. I think it's a little bit of everything. The biggest problem is not finding one supplier. It's just the convenience of having someone at a drop of a hat who can say, Yep, I can book your fridge services in. We can avoid you destroying all your drugs. It's very inexpensive compared to destroying £15,000 worth of vaccinations.

Speaker 2:40

I think that's the key thing, isn't it? Is that the cost of the medicines, but also the cost of having the CQC crawling all over you as well.

Speaker 2 2:48

Absolutely. I think we all know how bad and how tough that actually is.

Speaker 2:52

So what sort of lifespan should a fridge have? Is that extended by so servicing?

Speaker 2 2:57

Absolutely. I mean, the beauty of fridges is they nine times out of ten, I mean, we offer them a five-year warranty. It's very much like a car. The more you look after it, the more you service it, the more you protect it, the longer it will last.

Speaker 3:10

How long does it take to do a service? How long should dispensaries allocate for this task?

Speaker 2 3:17

So it's very dependent on how many fridges you've got, how many rooms you're accessing, how accessible the rooms actually are. That could take anything from half an hour to maybe a little bit longer. But we try and keep it as time strenuous as possible because we appreciate that is the most luxurious thing the surgery has at the moment.

Speaker 3:35

And is fridge servicing the only thing your engineer can do while they're on site with you, or is PAC testing something they can do at the same time?

Speaker 2 3:43

Yeah, pack testing, calibrations, servicing for your medical couches, all of this just apart from being CQC compliant, just ticks the surgery over with small spending each year to avoid a massive bill of ridiculous amounts of couch breakages or fridges not working like we're having now or equipment not working correctly.

Speaker 4:04

And pack testing, how often should it be done and what's uh what's in scope for that?

Speaker 2 4:09

So pack testing, similarly to calibration, is once again, what tends to be best is if you're servicing of your couches and your fridges, extended servicing, because fridges are included in the general calibration, but you need extended servicing to make sure they reach their maximum lifespan. So once a year for all of those, we'll keep you ticking along perfectly fine.

Speaker 4:28

It's a small investment, really, for a very big return on equipment efficiency.

Speaker 2 4:34

Absolutely. Seeing that fridges now go into the thousands, medical couches go into the thousands for to do X amount of medical couches costs a few hundred pounds a year to service something that will last you a decade.

Speaker 4:47

Tegan, couches, what problems do people find and how can they reduce those?

Speaker 1 4:53

So often we are in contact with surgeries that have maybe failed their CQC infection controls. This is often due to, you know, tears in their couches. This is something that we can kind of easily get around with reupholstery. Not only is it ticking boxes on compliance, but it's more sustainable. Instead of buying a whole new couch, we can just replace that one section. We can reupholster that one section. And it's definitely something that people are moving towards instead of replacing whole couches.

Speaker 5:22

I guess it sort of ticks the sustainability box as well as the cost effectiveness box that you're not throwing something away that doesn't need to be thrown away and it saves you buying a whole new piece of kit. Absolutely. So, how long does it take to do a refurb? Is it is it a question of you have to send the couch away or you have to do without it, or it's going to be out of action for a long time? What's the process for that?

Speaker 1 5:45

Absolutely not. So it is actually a very quick and simple process. There is usually, you know, four bolts in the bottom of your section. All that needs to be done is we will send you out a new section, completely replace it, take you about five minutes, and you've got a couch that's up and running.

Speaker 5:58

And do you offer a range of colours and finishes if they've got colour coordinated uh couches and upholstery?

Speaker 1 6:06

Absolutely. Yeah, it's definitely something that we we discuss. We can often colour match the vinyl, we can offer antibacterial vinyl as well.

Speaker 6:17

Practices want to keep up with the fashions.

Speaker 1 6:20

Oh, I've had a few of the red wine colour coming through recently. Yeah, that's what it's the colour of the year.

Speaker 6:26

Okay, well, there you go. So your fashion trends are here from the DDA. So, Tom, finally, a very important aspect of dispensary operation and practice operation is of course cost saving. Everything costs money, everything costs more. I think GPs universally are seeing their funding a little bit tighter than it has been in the past. So, what can practices do and how can MedEP help with that cost saving side of things?

Speaker 3 6:57

That's a great question. So, our philosophy has always been the more you can get from us, the more competitive we can be across the board. And instead of treating each department as a separate account, we generally look at the overall relationship. So by consolidating spend with one supplier, practices can often unlock better pricing across multiple product ranges while also reducing reducing the administrative burden that comes with lots of suppliers.

Speaker 7:21

What kind of saving can a practice make with you?

Speaker 3 7:25

Well, with fewer suppliers, you have fewer orders, fewer invoices, fewer deliveries, which means less time spent chasing deliveries or dealing with you know different customer service teams. And at the end of the day, time is money. That's the biggest currency within a surgery at the moment is time. So if we can save you some time, you will be effectively saving money.

Speaker 7:45

And it's everything that they can get from you, everything but the drugs.

Speaker 3 7:49

That is our scrap line. Everything but the drugs. Unfortunately, we don't have the necessary license for the drug sales yet. But anything from furniture right through to the services, from dispensing bags to syringes, we can help with any consumable within a doctor's surgery.

Speaker 8:04

And delivery, what's your turnaround time?

Speaker 3 8:07

99% of the products are delivered within one and two days. We do some bespoke like printed labels within dispensary, they're generally within a week. But most of the borrowed orders are delivered within one to two days at the most.

Speaker 8:19

For DDA members, I think you have something special to offer.

Speaker 3 8:23

We do. For the DDA community, we offer extra discount. We've been back in the DDA now for years. And for the members that pay you a monthly fee, we would like to do a little bit more for them. So if if there's a DDA member out there that's not currently use us, if they could contact us with a DDA number, we will get them preferential pricing across the board.

Speaker 8:43

In terms of savings, what does buying from MedIP offer a practice? Can you put a number on that?

Speaker 3 8:50

On average, it's around 10,700 per annum across all departments. That's going by previous 250 accounts we've won from competitors. We've managed to save them an average of around 10,700 across the board for the whole year.

Speaker 9:04

Wow. So it's nearly 11,000 pounds just by switching to you and buying it under one roof or one stock shop supplier.

Speaker 3 9:11

It's not an insignificant saving, and that's really why we're trying to reach the DDA community to really pass these savings across to the people who deserve them.

Speaker 9:19

And of course, they can come and see you at your stand at the conference. We have two days of unlimited contact with yourselves. And that's obviously something that your team will be there to show your offer and to communicate with DDA members exactly what offers are available to them. Luke, what else will you be bringing to the conference?

Speaker 2 9:40

Offers, discounts, setting up meetings. We'll obviously have chocolates and little freebies, all that lovely stuff that dispensaries can't do without.

Speaker 9:49

Absolutely. That's why people come to conference.

Speaker 3 9:52

At the end of the day, I think if you're a DDO member and you're not currently using MedIP, you are missing out on savings financially.

Speaker 9:58

Yeah, absolutely. And the conference is a great place to come and find out about that, particularly if your couch is looking a bit tatty or you come into a nasty surprise on your fridge on your fridge in the morning and you've had to write off a whole load of stock. It's time to do something about that. Thank you all very much. I'm looking forward very much to seeing you all at the conference. And yeah, we will join our DDA delegates in a two day programme of education, networking, buying from our exhibitors, and of course the reception drinks on the Wednesday evening. All very welcome. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2 10:32

Thank you. Thank you, Elsa.