October 7th 2025

By Ailsa Colquhoun

DDA25: PMs - going beyond the hatch for dispensary success

“All levels of practice leadership must have an active interest in dispensing to make it work.”

That was the message from Ed Kennedy, national dispensing lead at the Institute of General Practice Management to the DDA 2025 conference.

In his presentation, Beyond the hatch: Practice managers driving dispensary success! Kennedy stressed the financial and staffing challenges, and higher patient expectations affecting dispensing practices. He challenged delegates: “How often do you review the basics?”

He said that dispensaries must adopt a customer culture. “Treat patients like customers. It is not acceptable for them to leave because of a bad experience at the hatch,” he said.

As well as customer service, areas to look at include:

• opening hours
• technology
• deliveries.

He also outlined the following tips for the practice manager:

• Block out time in the staff member’s appointment book to make the changes you want. “It seems expensive but the pay back is enormous,” he said
• Learn from significant events and work from a formulary
• Reconcile scripts daily to avoid wrong group movements (prescription charges)
• Understand what discounts/rebates you get
• Outsource functions where your time is more valuable

The conference also heard an update on IPGM accreditations of practice and dispensary managers and the IPGM’s concerns that proposals  to regulate GP managers may stop talent from coming through to practices.

View the presentation: Beyond the hatch: Practice managers driving dispensary success!