Fife firm behind prescription-collection MedPoint kiosks in good health after funding deal

A Fife technology firm has secured funding to help roll out prescription collection kiosks that enable patients to pick up medicines at any time.

Kirkcaldy-based Medicine Collection is behind the MedPoint kiosks that can also take temperature readings, prescription requests and contactless payments.

The company installed its first prototype in a pharmacy in 2018 and received grant funding from Innovate UK to develop a production-scale ATM-style machine. It has also designed a fully temperature-controlled freestanding kiosk, designed to enable rapid deployment with minimal building or planning works.

MedPoint co-founders Kevin Murphy (left) and Mark Hedley. Picture: contributed.

It has now accessed funding from UMi Debt Finance Scotland under the Scottish Growth Scheme which aims to help Scottish SMEs innovate with loans of £25,000 and up.

MedPoint chief executive Mark Hedley said the backing would help the firm take advantage of the huge demand it is seeing in the market.

“The pandemic really put our foot on the accelerator, and the standalone offering has been a real breakthrough for us, but we needed additional funding to take it all the way,” he said.

“Pharmacies, both single operator and corporate chains, are seeing all sorts of benefits. We’ve even got one in Leighton Hospital in Crewe to help reduce pressure on the pharmacy and potentially reduce bed-blocking.”

Tom Brock, UMi Debt Finance Scotland fund director, said: “We want to encourage innovative ideas like this that translate into a product that makes people’s lives better, in this case by simplifying the prescription-collection process. It’s a clear and clever proposition, but one that has a lot of hard work, creative thinking and trialling sitting behind it.”

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