Changes to working
hours:
A) Closing to the public for 2.5 hours –
Closed door working – due to significant pressure on workload:
- All pharmacies will be expected, on every day they have contracted opening hours, to be open to the public between 10am and 12 noon and 2pm and 4pm as a minimum (if these are contracted hours). 100 hours pharmacies should be open from 10am–12pm and 2pm–6pm as a
minimum
- Must put a sign on the door with information about how to contact the pharmacy if urgent help is needed
B) Pharmacy not being able to
open due to unavailability of the responsible pharmacist or enough staff to safely open
- NHS England and NHS improvement must be informed immediately
- Pharmacy to contact NHS 111 Directory of Services (DoS) profile must be updated - https://dos-profile.service.nhs.uk/#/index
- NHS website must be updated
- Work with PCNs, other community services and other practices to maximise capabilities of staff across practices
- Arrange a ‘budding’ arrangement with another local pharmacy to maintain access to pharmaceutical services in the event of a temporary closure
- Think about patients receiving services such as supervised consumption or monitored dosage systems
- Consideration can be given to providing daily doses rather than supervised consumption on an individual patient risk assessed basis
