Toowoomba residents can now have their prescription medication delivered right to their door with an Uber Eats-style app for medicines launched in the Garden City yesterday.
Tonic allows people to scan prescriptions and then have their medication, as well as other over-the-counter products, delivered to their home or office.
Co-founder Adam Gilmore said that after successful trials in Brisbane, the app was now “onboarding” pharmacies in Toowoomba.
“People can have a special relationship with their pharmacist, and we respect that, but sometimes when you’re sick or if you can’t get to the chemist you need an alternative,” Mr Gilmore said.
“A pharmacist does a phone consult before dispensing the medication, and the feedback we receive is that mums particularly like it because if they have a sick child, or worse, they’re not well, they don’t need to take everyone out to get the medicine they need.
“Coming in to the winter flu season we’re told if we’re sick to stay home and not spread it. Tonic means you can get the flu tablets, throat gargle and any other medication you need delivered.”
Mr Gilmore said in Brisbane, where the app launched, thousands of people used the service since it launched a little over a year ago. He said research showed women, predominantly aged between 20 to 38 and then older men and women, were the highest users.
“Older Australians (are) also increasingly using the app because it provides a reminder for scripts that have repeats,”he said.
“It means they never run short on the medication they need, and that is one less thing for them and their carers to worry about.”
Tonic also has a partnership with House Call Doctors, so after hours home visiting doctors can use the app to write prescriptions.
“For doctors it gives them peace of mind that the patient will get their medication, and for patients it means they don’t have to leave their sick bed,” Mr Gilmore said.
“House Call Doctor operates in 16 areas across Queensland, and we are hoping to be able to offer Tonic to patients in all of those regional and city areas in the coming months.”
Tonic delivery for House Call Doctor patients whose scripts have been written by a House Call Doctor are free. Standard delivery costs $5. The Tonic app can be downloaded on Google Play or the App Store.
Original Source: Toowoomba Chronicle | 7 May 2019
Also published in: Gladstone Observer, The Morning Bulletin, Daily Mercury News, The Gympie Times, Warwick Daily News, The Northern Star, Fraser Coast Chronicle, NewsMail, Sunshine Coast Daily, Queensland Times, South Burnett Times and The Daily Examiner.
