The country's largest private hospital operator Ramsay Health Care will open its first central-city pharmacy, starting a mooted push into providing more services "beyond the hospital walls".
Ramsay has taken a lease over about 300 square metres in a Melbourne building owned by Blackstone and Brookfield, where it will create a hyper-store selling medicines and medical services.
The hospital giant was "undertaking preliminary work, with intention of opening in Q1 2017", a spokeswoman said. "It will be a full-line Ramsay pharmacy providing [a] full service model."
That includes dispensing medicine, providing space for allied health professionals and screening services such as blood tests. The model emulates, and will compete with, many medical practices that also provide extended ancillary services.
Ramsay revealed in August it intends to push beyond its hospitals to create a nationwide pharmacy network that will feed into its health providers.
At the time chief executive Chris Rex said the group had "commenced a strategic plan to extend our services beyond the hospital walls".
"We are in the process of establishing strategically located community pharmacies across Australia, concentrating initially in close proximity to our hospitals," he said. "This will allow us to provide extended services to our patients including participation in the provision of care to the chronically ill."
The Melbourne pharmacy will be the group's first CBD hyper-store, a model soon expected to roll out in Sydney's CBD.
The pharmacy will open early next year in Southern Cross Lane, part of the twin-tower Southern Cross office at 111 Bourke Street, in which private equity giant Blackstone bought a $675 million half-share in 2015.
Strict federal and state regulations control the location and ownership of community pharmacies.
Colliers International retail leasing director Cam Taranto, who negotiated the lease with colleague Jarrod Herscu, said the pharmacy would include a mezzanine level for offices, treatment rooms and prescription medicines, and "even offer Chinese medicine".
Mr Taranto said retail rents were rising in Sydney and Melbourne and service retailers were responding by creating "multi-channel revenue streams" on single sites that allowed them to underpin higher rents.
Mr Herscu said Flight Centre had adopted a similar model with its new multi-level hyper-store at 478-480 George Street, on the site of the former Mick Simmons sport store and next to the Sydney Hilton.
That store follows the Queen Street Mall hyper-store, which is home to several "teams" offering specialised services, from advice on adventure holidays to more sedate tropical island getaways.
Flight Centre was exploring similar options in Melbourne and restricting its smaller-format Escape Travel stores to make way for larger format models, Mr Herscu said.
Small pharmacy operators are likely to feel the competition from Ramsay . A U Pharmacy in central Melbourne, at 50 Bourke Street in a 70 sq m space, recently stopped trading.
Ramsey operates three pharmacies in suburban Melbourne, including a 24-hour venue on the peninsula. Across the rest of Australia it has accumulated 22 pharmacies.
