There is a whole new life for the former Bundaberg West Pharmacy as it officially opened as WholeLife Pharmacy and Healthfoods Bundaberg recently.
While focused primarily on traditional pharmacy products and services like its dispensary, WholeLife also offers a range of natural and organic products across skincare, beauty, healthfoods, eco-living and nutrition.
The pharmacy is still owned by local pharmacists Brenton Veurman, David Holmes and Annabelle Hirst, who believe the new model offers patients a holistic approach to their health and well-being.
“The WholeLife brand was something different to a lot of other types of models and what we particularly liked about it was it focused on keeping people well,” Brenton said.
“So if people have certain health conditions, food intolerances, what have you, it’s about keeping them well rather than them just coming in when they become sick.
“We can help support them the whole way through.”
Brenton said the public feedback had been very positive since the official opening of their expanded offering on 13 May.
“People have come up to us saying ‘thank you for doing this’ which as a pharmacist is very satisfying, to know that we’re helping people make it easier to look after their health,” he said.
“The main comment we get is that people don’t have to buy things online anymore which means they can get it quicker, there’s no postage cost and they can get it all in one place.
“The people that have come in here are very proactive about their health so from our point of view it’s a pleasure interacting with patients because they want to look after their health so it’s very positive.”
While the pharmacy has maintained similar staffing levels under the new model, Brenton believes it will stand them in good stead for the future.
“With the changing of the pharmacy model moving forward, pharmacists will find it difficult to just rely on the dispensary like we used to,” he said.
“So in terms of employment, moving to the WholeLife model will help us maintain our staffing levels.”
He said they were excited about the business moving forward and their focus for the future was to make sure the mix of stock was right to cater to the needs of the community.
“What I’d really like people to know is that if there are products they’re after that they can’t get, come and talk to us because often we can get them and we can switch them out with products that aren’t that much in demand,” he said.
“We’ll do what we can to make it happen.”
WholeLife Pharmacy and Healthfoods Bundaberg can be found at 3/290 Bourbong Street.
For more information, visit their website here.