Pharmacies should be growing their prescription business at the same rate or in excess of national increases, said Numark’s Mimi Lau, and be concerned if they are not. ‘Are you growing at four per cent year on year? If you are, can you pinpoint why? Or are you sliding – and where is that leakage going to?’ 

Numark offers a service that maps local prescribing patterns, allowing pharmacies to compare their performance with the potential business available. ‘Have you got the right relationship with that surgery or is that list drifting away from you? Are you capturing EPS nominations?’ asked Ms Lau.

Make sure that your prescription business is in order, she advised. However, Terry Maguire, pharmacist from Belfast said that increasing script numbers was not always good for business. ‘That would be mostly MDS and we would be happy to get rid of those,’ he suggested.