The Co-operative Pharmacy was previously the trading name of National Co-operative Chemists, part of Co-operative Group Healthcare based in Rochdale, and Belfast Co-operative Chemists, a wholly owned subsidiary operating in Northern Ireland. Established in 1945, National Co-operative Chemists traded in areas without a regional society pharmacy, although some independent societies also operated their own in-house chemists under The Co-operative Pharmacy brand after it was introduced in 2007. In 2001, The Co-operative Pharmacy pioneered the use of Braille on the packaging of own label medicines and, in 2012, it became the first retail pharmacy chain in the UK to become carbon neutral. The Co-operative Doctor was an online diagnosis and treatment system. In 2011, The Co-operative Pharmacy teamed up with The-Clinic.com to provide clinical and medical input. The-Clinic.com’s medical services were provided by Freedom Health, which is registered with the Healthcare Commission. In February 2014, after suffering a £2.5bn loss for 2013, The Co-operative Group announced that it was to start exploring options to sell their pharmacy business along with other businesses in their portfolio.
Bestway Group
The Co-operative Group agreed to divest the business to the Bestway Group for £620 million in July 2014. The sale was completed in October 2014 and Bestway were given a licence to continue using the Co-operative brand for 12 months. On 10 February 2015 during an event held in Birmingham, it was announced that Well would become the new brand for the pharmacy business and that all 780 branches would have all reference to The Co-operative Pharmacy removed and replaced with Well by the end of October 2015.
Services
In 2018 it had 794 pharmacies across the UK and Northern Ireland. It launched an online NHS prescription service in July 2018. By January 2019 25,184 patients had signed up.
Controversy
In late 2018, Well Pharmacy faced controversy after a data breach leaking the personal information of 24,000 employees. It reportedly launched a full investigation of the data breach, which occurred due to an operating error, resulting in the distribution of an email containing personal information to various locums on 11 December 2018.
