PhOEnix Medical
Creating Hey Pharmacist – the platform for a new kind of pharmacy
Digitising Repeat Prescriptions
Repeat prescriptions are one of the most frequent points of contact between patients and the NHS.
For the millions of people who rely on regular medication, the process of requesting, managing, and collecting prescriptions had changed little in decades — phone calls to surgeries, paper requests, and trips to the pharmacy. This cycle cost patients time and created administrative burden across the healthcare system.
The opportunity was clear: a digital solution that allowed patients to manage their prescriptions seamlessly, securely, and on their own terms. The goal was ambitious, to capture 3% of the repeat prescription market, and the approach needed to match. The product had to work for anyone regardless of whether they were an existing customer or not, and it had to integrate directly with GP practices to make the ordering process genuinely frictionless.
Apadmi was brought in to design and build that product. The result was Hey Pharmacist — one of the first apps of its kind to integrate directly with a patient’s GP practice using NHS login, giving patients a safe, fast, and fully digital way to order their repeat prescription medication.
The platform was originally designed and developed in partnership with Co-op under the name Co-op Health. In March 2021, it was acquired by Phoenix UK (one of the UK’s largest healthcare providers and the owner of Rowlands Pharmacy and Numark) and rebranded as Phoenix Health. The acquisition is itself a measure of what was built: a product robust enough, and commercially validated enough, to attract one of the sector’s major players.
A direct GP integration via NHS login
The central technical and design challenge was connecting patients to their own GP practice in a way that was fast, secure, and simple enough for anyone to use. This meant including people who had never interacted with a healthcare app before, and who might have low digital confidence or accessibility needs.
Hey Pharmacist was one of the first apps of its kind to integrate with a patient’s GP practice directly through their NHS login. This meant patients could register, connect to their surgery, and start ordering repeat prescriptions in a single, streamlined flow. No phone calls, no paper, no separate registration for every service.
NHS login integration
Patients connect to their GP practice directly through their NHS login — a first for consumer pharmacy apps. Registration is secure, verified, and takes minutes rather than days.
Repeat prescription ordering
Patients request repeat prescription medication quickly and securely, with orders processed directly through the GP practice connection — no phone calls, no paperwork.
Push notifications & order tracking
Patients receive real-time updates at every stage of their prescription order so they always know where their medication is and when it will be ready.
Integrated chat
A built-in chat system allows patients to raise queries without needing to call the pharmacy or surgery — reducing friction and keeping everything in one place.
Built for everyone
Designed from the outset to be accessible regardless of digital experience, including accessibility features to support users with visual or motor impairments.
Safe & contactless by design
Launched at a time when contactless healthcare access had never mattered more, the app provided a fully digital alternative to in-person prescription collection, helping patients stay safe.
Results
Hey Pharmacist has become a trusted digital gateway for managing repeat prescriptions at scale.
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220K+
downloads on iOS and Google Play
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9.6K+
monthly orders via the app
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96%
good or very good satisfaction rating from patients
Adoption and impact
Hey Pharmacist proved its value from the moment it launched.
The app received 261 orders in its first week; a clear signal that demand for a genuinely simple, digital prescription experience was real and immediate. Before the app was acquired by Phoenix Medical, the platform was processing more than 9,600 monthly orders and had accumulated over 8,500 users.
The metric that speaks most clearly to the quality of the experience is the satisfaction rating, with 95% of users rating the service as good or very good. In a healthcare context, where trust and reliability are non-negotiable, that level of satisfaction reflects both clinical confidence and commercial success.
With over 220,000 downloads across iOS and Google Play, Hey Pharmacist established itself as a meaningful new channel in the repeat prescription market.
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