Emergency Changes to Hours over Christmas/New Year
The South West NHS England team have sent the following request to all pharmacies:
Re Temporary hours during an emergency requiring the flexible provision of pharmaceutical services
This is a very important week as we go into the Holidays due to the unprecedented pressure on healthcare systems. NHS England and Improvement has to ensure there are adequate provision of pharmaceutical services for the delivery of medicines and services to patients over the Xmas and New Year Period, to do this we need to ensure that we communicate any changes to the provision of hours for the holiday period to all by Thursday of this week.
As you will be aware under Paragraph 27 of Schedule 4 of the Regulations Community Pharmacies can apply to NHS England and Improvement for a temporary change to opening hours. To do this you should give at least 24 hours’ notice and give adequate reasons for the exceptional circumstances in your application.
If you need to submit an application of the type mentioned above for the Christmas period, in order that we can plan and co-ordinate services, we would ask that you submit any such applications using the appropriate attached form to england.pharmacysouthwest@nhs.net by 12 noon on the 23rd December 2021.
As we head into the Christmas period and with the drive to increase Covid vaccinations we do need to maintain access to pharmaceutical services so trust that applications will only be submitted in exceptional circumstances.
Don’t forget – Sunday 26th December and Saturday 1st January are NOT Bank Holidays and all planning has been made on the assumption that pharmacies are open for their usual contracted hours on these days.
