26 May 2020

Well now delivering healthcare essentials to customers' doors

Well now delivering healthcare essentials to customers' doors

At a time of social distancing and isolation we know some of our customers are worrying about how to get their healthcare essentials. Well have now launched a new online shopping site, offering delivery of a range of healthcare essentials direct to customers’ doors: shop.well.co.uk

This site has been developed in just over a couple of weeks by Well’s in-house development team – focusing on getting a usable site in place quickly to meet the demand of customers who don’t want to – or can’t – leave their house but still want the reassurance of being able to get their usual ‘over the counter’ medication and essentials.

For a delivery charge of £4 per order, customers can select any number of products – though there is a maximum of two of any one item – and have them delivered via Royal Mail.

“With uncertainty over how long any lockdown may last, and customers who visit our pharmacy minimising their time with us by just focusing on collecting their prescribed medication, we saw that there was a need to still supply these everyday healthcare essentials that our customers usually buy from us,” said Jeremy Harrison, Well’s Commercial Director. “This virus has changed people’s behaviour beyond all recognition and shopping habits are no exception. We’ve seen the huge demand on supermarket home delivery slots, and so we wanted to offer an alternative for our customers on some true essentials for everyone’s health and wellbeing.”

“The products we’ve launched with are those that customers buy from us the most, and we aim to add more each week to cover everyone’s needs,” said Claire O’Connell, Well’s Head of IT and Digital. “What we’ve started with, and developed really quickly, is a basic, functional and secure site to give customers access to what they want from us.  Over time we hope to develop this to give a health-led offer to our customers”.

This is one of several adaptions that Well has made over recent weeks in response to the coronavirus pandemic:

  • Equipping all our teams with PPE as they continue to offer a face-to-face service for their communities.
  • Redeploying some support centre colleagues to help with patient facing roles and recruiting 100s of extra colleagues to help with deliveries and in our pharmacies during these times of huge demand.
  • Adding social distancing queuing into all pharmacies to help keep everyone two metres apart.
  • Removing the need to sign for home deliveries to reduce the potential risk of spreading infection.
  • Creating a coronavirus section on our website to offer advice and guidance to patients during these difficult times. 

But some things remain the same. Our pharmacy teams are still on the frontline to offer patients face-to-face advice and help with their medication and healthcare queries. And we’re keeping the supply of medication flowing across the UK with extra shifts in our supply chain and a single- minded focus on making sure that patients can get what they need, when they need it.

And of course, whilst we’re offering this home delivery service, customers and patients can still visit their pharmacy to get these items – and more – as usual. All we ask is that they pay with a contactless card where possible and be patient with the teams who are dealing with increased workload during this pandemic.