Londoners have a whole new way to receive thousands of medical products delivered directly to their homes or offices almost immediately. New service Healistic says it can deliver your choice of healthcare items or medicines from your local pharmacy in just 45 minutes.
The app, which launched in early 2023, currently operates in a handful of fairly central London areas, that range from Earl’s Court to Elephant & Castle – but it certainly has ambitious rollout plans. Chief among these is the ability to bring prescription medicines directly to the patient’s door at the same speed.
This would be a gamechanger, says Healistic CEO and founder Daniel Bulkin, because existing online prescription-delivery companies, such as Phlo, can only offer a same-day service, albeit this firm says the average time is under two hours if within a delivery zone.
“Phlo falls in the category of mail-order pharmacies, competing with other classic online pharmacy players who ship pharmacy products same or next day,” said Bulkin, confident that Healistic will provide a unique level of service. “Receiving your order in 45 minutes vs end-of-day or next-day is a big difference for consumers and patients.”
The Healistic app claims to connect you to the live digital inventory of a nearby physical pharmacy and then present up to 3,000 of its products for sale. This means that what is displayed in the app is highly likely to be in stock at this pharmacy, ready to be collected and delivered by a Healistic e-bike rider, at a fixed add-on cost of £2.50 per trip.
The company currently offers only over-the-counter products but says that it will have a delivery service for private prescriptions in the next six months – and will then include the holy grail of NHS prescriptions by the end of this year.
Healistic says it is still ironing out the technical infrastructure for prescription meds and building partnerships with GPs. “We also have the legal roadmap planned through with lawyers, so we know how to execute everything to adhere to regulation,” insists Bulkin.
Because the product selection is generated by each pharmacy itself, the choice includes pretty much anything it has in stock, from first-aid kits to feminine health, or even sexual wellbeing products. Ideal for those who value privacy when making sensitive purchases.
“We believe that people want (and deserve) a healthcare-focused holistic app that is built around the intimacy, sterility, and care that a consumer expects when dealing with pharma,” said Bulkin. “The physical retail world equivalent is that most people do their healthcare shopping at Boots rather than at Sainsbury.”
Healistic aims to provide the rapid delivery of next-gen general grocers such as Getir – which acquired its main UK rivals, Gorillas and Wheezy – along with the specialist inventory offered by local pharmacies and all without the need to fill up extra warehouses with stock. This is a clever idea if the firm can make it fly.
With the NHS in ongoing crisis and strikes affecting supply chains, there is certainly room for innovation here and more convenience is always good, especially for vulnerable Londoners or panicking parents who need medicines rapidly but are unable to go out and get it themselves for one reason or another.
The fact that you can replace a broken lipstick or source lubricant before a football match has even reached half-time is merely a bonus.
