At two West Sussex Sainsbury stores, a prescription drug vending machine has been put up and it is being noticed if customers are gaining any benefit out of it like reducing the customer queuing times.

Roy Swift who has been using the machine to pick up his repeat prescriptions said, "The first time I used it, it was a little bit unfamiliar. But after I got used to it was very easy."

The machines will be installed alongside the in-store pharmacy service, the problem that is bothering some is that it is possible to conduct the whole process without face-to-face contact.

About 80 per cent of prescription time is gone in repeat prescribing and other things that accounts for prescription time are treatments that are new to a patient.

Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the British Medical Association GP Committee is concerned by this process as he feels that patients would take drugs without asking important things.

He said, "Giving out medicine is not just box-shifting. The patient doesn't know if there are any questions that need to be asked or answered. It can't be safe to hand over the prescription when you haven't met a pharmacist who knows whether that prescription is safe in combination with other things you are eating."