AMCAL and Guardian pharmacies across Australia are set to significantly boost their professional services offering, with Sigma Healthcare announcing the national roll-out of "the most comprehensive sleep apnoea testing program in Australia's history" next month.
The in-pharmacy program will be provided in partnership with Australian Pharmacy Sleep Services (APSS), targeting the estimated 1.8 million undiagnosed Australians living with the condition.
The aim of the testing is to provide customers with information about their health which they can discuss with their pharmacist or share with their GP to determine a way to manage the problem.
The move was announced yesterday during Sigma Healthcare's national retail conference on the Gold Coast.
Amcal & Guardian gm retail, Brian Tomlin, said both brands believe the professional services offered by their qualified pharmacists are an important front-line support for GPs and other health care professionals to better test Australians for key health issues.
"The sleep apnoea program will be a great example of this proactive approach," Tomlin said.
Philips-backed APSS will provide face-to-face training along with printed collateral which has been created to ensure Amcal and Guardian pharmacists can provide high quality support to their customers.
The $99 tests will be completed overnight by patients in the comfort of their own home, with fitting of equipment supervised by the pharmacists and resuilts reviewed by an external GP as well as being available in-store.
The partnership with Sigma follows last year's acquisition of Australian Pharmacy Sleep Services by Philips (PD 29 Mar 2017) which had the stated aim of accelerating its home sleep testing offering through the pharmacy channel in Australia.
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