Christmas and New Year 2015/16
All pharmacies are required to provide details of their opening hours for the Christmas and New Year period 2015/16. This is to enable the NHS Midlands & East (East) Primary Care Support Team (PCST) to determine any rota provision that may be required to support the GP and other Out of Hour’s services.
Each pharmacy intending to open voluntarily on any of the designated Bank and Public holidays during the Christmas and New Year period 2015/16 should complete and return this form. Forms should be returned to Serco at: hazel.thresh@serco.com or wyn.french@serco.com
Any pharmacy that does not return the form will be considered as being closed on the Bank Holidays.
The PCST are also requesting expressions of interest from pharmacies who would like to be considered to provide pharmacy Out of Hours services. Contractors who are interested should contact the Team by email at; england.ea-pharm-services@nhs.net
Details of pharmacies open over the Bank Holidays will be published on the NHS England Website and will be given to interested parties to promote these services to the general public e.g., Out of Hours care providers, Clinical Commissioning Groups, the press etc.
We would like to draw your attention to the recent pharmacy bulletin sent though the Midlands & East (East) Primary Care Gateway on 26th June, which clarified the requirements for Saturday 26 December 2015; and also advised contractors that the Boxing Day Bank Holiday would fall on Monday 28 December 2015.
In summary, any requests to close on Saturday 26th December 2015 by pharmacies with core hours on this day will be refused – unless there are changes to the pharmaceutical needs of the patients that require the change in opening hours. Any pharmacy wishing to amend their core and/or supplementary hours should submit an application form or notification form in the usual way. Template forms may be downloaded from the NHS England website at: http://www.england.nhs.uk/pharm-open-hrs/
However it should be noted that applications for a change in core hours will be required to demonstrate how the change meets a change in the pharmaceutical needs of the patients that generally use the pharmacy. Such applications would not then be expected for Bank Holidays or for the days either side where contractors will be expected to provide their core hours.
Further guidance on bank holiday requirements and opening hours may be found on the PSNC website at: http://psnc.org.uk/contract-it/pharmacy-regulation/opening-hours/
All forms should be completed and returned no later than 8 September 2015.