Dis-Chem has opened its Melrose Arch Health Hub, delivering healthcare through retail.
The format is anchored in a clinic, pharmacy and cover services trifecta, marking a significant step in Dis-Chem’s evolution from a pharmacy-led retailer to an integrated health partner and retailer.
“South Africans have long had to navigate their healthcare alone, moving between disconnected providers and fragmented systems,” says Dis-Chem CEO Rui Morais. “This store is our answer to that. It is not enough to just stock health products. We want to actively deliver care.
“When healthcare, pharmacy, financial services and technology work together in one place, we can reach more people, at lower cost, and with better outcomes. That is the ambition, and this is where it starts.”
At the centre of the store is the Hub, a full-service gateway positioned as the primary entry point into Dis-Chem’s healthcare ecosystem. Staffed by trained Health Hub Advisors, it provides a single point of entry where customers are guided across both healthcare and retail journeys.
The model combines personal support with digitally enabled self-service, creating a more seamless and intuitive experience.
Pharmacy remains a cornerstone of the model, with a re-engineered customer journey focused on efficiency and impactful engagement. Prescription and over-the-counter processes have been integrated to streamline service delivery, while script submission and medication collection have been separated to reduce waiting times and enable more meaningful pharmacist interaction.
A digital ticketing system eliminates queuing, complemented by multiple script submission channels and via the enhanced Dis-Chem app.
The in-store clinic has been upgraded to deliver a complete clinical experience, with nurse-led consultations, virtual GP access, and a fully equipped pre-assessment and diagnostic testing room staffed by a dedicated clinic care assistant.
The clinic care assistant role, fulfilled by a qualified phlebotomist, reflects a deliberate choice to make clinical services feel welcoming and accessible without compromising on expertise.
Centralised administration, managed through the Hub, removes the administrative burden from clinical staff and allows more time for patient care.
Financial services are fully integrated into the experience, with dedicated financial advisors available in private consultation spaces that connect directly with both healthcare services and retail. This allows customers to engage with health cover, life insurance and funding solutions as part of a single, connected journey.
Morais notes that the store’s design was driven by a deliberate challenge to conventional thinking. “The genesis of this store lay in a simple but hugely important question: if we could reimagine the future of health retail without any constraints, what would that look like?
“We did not start with the floor plan of an existing store. We started from scratch, imagining the art of the possible. From there, we worked to bring that vision back to the reality of our customers, our staff and our brand.
“With this format, we are bringing together elements that have long been fragmented into one coherent system, making healthcare more accessible, more connected and easier to navigate. That is what Better Health Starts Here truly means in practice,” he says.
Recognising employees as priority customers, the store includes a dedicated, multi-functional space designed to support training, collaboration and wellbeing, enabling teams to deliver better service in a more supportive and connected environment.
The retail environment has been intentionally redesigned through a healthcare-first lens. A dedicated health experiential zone deepens this further, designed not as a standalone feature but as an extension of the full healthcare journey. Retail is positioned not as a separate function, but as a direct enabler of better health outcomes.