Hub & Spoke & Automation
From efficiency to patient care: the future of community pharmacy under the NHS 10-year plan
Technology advancements and automations are gathering pace in the pharmacy sector, with key legislative changes around the Hub and Spoke model, as well as a significant shift in the Government’s 10-year Health Plan.
But what does it all really mean, and what are the short- and long-term impacts for the pharmacy sector?
If you are looking to unpack all of these topics, look no further, as we take you through some of the biggest changes happening to pharmacy and healthcare in recent years.
Hub and Spoke solutions for pharmacies
Creating efficiency and time for patient care are key reasons for many of the innovations we see now within the pharmacy sector. The dispensing process is one of the most labour-intensive and inefficient aspects of dispensing, which stops pharmacists from spending their time on patient care activities.
Creating a patient-centred community pharmacy, where more time is spent on patient care than dispensing, is the vision and integral to the government’s 10-year health plan launched earlier this year.
Hub and Spoke: How does it work?
The ‘Spoke’ is the pharmacy, and today, for many pharmacies, they will be carrying out the whole dispensing process on site in the pharmacy.
The Hub is a centralised facility, which could be a pharmacy with larger premises, or another facility with a capacity for larger machinery and robotics. Warehousing space for prescriptions is also required to enable a large volume of prescriptions to be processed and dispensed.
The prescription data is sent directly to the ‘Hub’ for processing and it is the hub where automation is used to assemble the prescription.
The patient experience will not change, as the contact remains with the spoke, taking their prescription to the pharmacy, who will then process the prescription, usually for next day collection unless it is urgent.
Hub and Spoke from October 2025 in the UK
Until October Hub and Spoke can only be used by a hub owned by the pharmacy and in the same legal entity. In October this changes and inter-company hub and spoke becomes legal, in accordance with the amendments to the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 (HMR).
From 1 October 2025, pharmacies will be allowed to contract with a separate business (the “hub”) to assemble prescriptions for their patients (the “spoke”). Only Model 1 is being enabled: patient → spoke → hub → back to spoke → patient. The hub cannot supply directly to the patient.
Hubs and spokes must have written agreements, display notices telling patients which hub is used, and may share patient data under a new legal “information gateway” (with confidentiality duties baked in).
When the medicines law comes into force 1st October 2025 new Terms of Service for NHS dispensing require the spoke to notify its Integrated Care Board (ICB) at least 28 days before starting—so the earliest practical start date is 29 Oct 2025 if the notification is sent on 1 Oct and the ICB doesn’t object.
Practical impact on different types of pharmacy
For small independents / small chains
- Access to automation without owning a hub. The change is explicitly intended to “level the playing field,” letting independents buy capacity from third-party hubs.
- Setup work & costs: SOP redesign, PMS/EPS/IT integration, staff training, data-sharing and contract paperwork, patient comms, ICB notification. Expect some up-front friction before benefits land.
- Capacity release (if well-implemented): Shifting assembly to a hub should free on-site pharmacist/tech time for services (e.g., Pharmacy First, contraception, BP checks), but savings aren’t guaranteed and depend on volumes, logistics, and fees negotiated with hubs. Sector bodies have cautioned about unclear financial upside.
For larger groups / existing hub operators
- Regulatory certainty to onboard external spokes (within Model 1 rules).
- New commercial market for hub services, but government flags it will review competition impacts once the market matures.
- Governance load: labelling rules keep accountability at the spoke; groups must align contracts, quality systems, and patient information across entities.
For dispensing doctors (England)
- Can act as spokes to a pharmacy hub under How this links to the UK Government’s “10-Year Health Plan”
The 2025 “Fit for the Future” 10-Year Health Plan for England sets three big shifts: hospital → community, analogue → digital, sickness → prevention.
Moving routine assembly off the shop floor is consistent with shifting pharmacist time into clinical, preventive work in communities.
The Government’s 2024 hub-and-spoke consultation response explicitly ties the change to the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework, the Primary Care Recovery Plan, and the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan—all of which aim to free capacity in community pharmacy and expand clinical services.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (2023) also points to automation and hub & spoke as levers to release pharmacy workforce time for patient-facing care.
What does this mean for you?
Releasing time for patient care and creating a more efficient pharmacy operation through automation and the hub and spoke model is already a reality for many pharmacies, but if you are not there yet there is a lot to consider.
The set-up will require investment in time and money. If you are a single independent or own a few branches, the options are to agree with other like-minded pharmacies to set up your own hub, or enter into an agreement with an established hub.
In an article for The Pharmacist, Gareth Jones, director of corporate affairs at the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), said:
'Some independent pharmacies may find hub and spoke to be a useful mechanism for releasing time for patient care. However, this is certainly no silver bullet as far as pharmacy finances are concerned. The medium to long term business case only stacks up for local pharmacies if there is an ongoing pipeline of NHS investment in clinical services, to make productive use of the staff time released.'
For larger groups, setting up a hub and spoke may be the next step in the growth of your pharmacy business. According to a report by Centred Solutions a hub and spoke will generate a huge return on investment with projections for groups of 20 pharmacies making an average profit of £4.9m over 5 years from services.
Louise Laban, Sales and Marketing Director at Centred Solutions says;
“The findings are really promising. For pharmacies who have the appetite for it, hub and spoke has the potential to be a hugely profitable venture for pharmacy despite the ongoing funding challenges. With changes to hub and spoke legislation imminent our advice to all pharmacy businesses would be to explore what hub and spoke could mean for your cash flow,”
Whether you are an independent or a large group of pharmacies, this is a great time to review your business and uncover the opportunity for you.
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