Member Stories
Mick Delaney
Pharmacist
Owner of multiple member pharmacies
Hi, I’m Mick.

I live in the Sunshine Coast with my two children and wife, Lucy who is also a pharmacist.

I’m a co-owner of a number of member pharmacies in regional QLD and NSW and joined Pharmacy Alliance when Lucy and I purchased our first pharmacy, Thursday Island Pharmacy, in 2012 , which we co-own with Simon Reynolds.

I believes pharmacist are the hub of remote health and can make a huge impact on the health of their patients.

I found out that being a pharmacist was well respected and well-paid.

I was also good at math and science and best of all I liked talking to people, so the job suited me perfectly.

It’s a job that lets you work all around Australia, getting to know the communities.

So, I’ve been a pharmacist since 2004.

My wife Lucy and I were both locums at Thursday Island Pharmacy and the opportunity to purchase the pharmacy came up.  We sought advice from other pharmacy owners and then met Simon through someone else. The support was amazing from Simon and the team at Pharmacy Alliance and made the process of buying the pharmacy a lot of easier.

 

Both Lucy and I were confident pharmacist managers in dispensary, stock and staff management, but not managing a business.  With Pharmacy Alliance from day one, as owners of Thursday Island, we had a budget and had access to a pharmacy business manager to help us manage the business this gave us a lot of confidence early on. 

Having a sounding board of people who have expertise from marketing to IT and knowing that the fundamentals are in place like KPIs and budgets.

As a working pharmacist it allowed me to focus on what I was taught at university which wasn’t business management.

Through the Pharmacy Alliance Partner program, myself and Lucy are involved in a number of pharmacies across QLD and NSW. As a result, we have been able to gain access to several income sources and diversify our income.

With the Partner pharmacies the Pharmacy Group Manager is responsible for developing and implementation of the pharmacy plan and budget every year. I am involved with reviewing and sign off with the other partner owners. I check in with the Pharmacy Group Manager and each pharmacy regularly.  This means I can spend more time with my family and focus on more strategic aspects of how my pharmacies are run.

It’s great to be part of a group that’s run by pharmacists that have similar values like me, but each with different views, experiences and goals. It gives me class-leading support and allows me to contribute on a bigger scale to communities across Australia, especially in regional Areas.

Importantly, there’s two-way communication. Not every solution suits every member, we are all in this together and we make decisions for everyone.