South West Community Pharmacy information

This webpage is for Community Pharmacists and their teams based in Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, Cornwall & Isles of Scilly, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, North Somerset, Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon and Wiltshire.

Further details and opening times of pharmacies are available on the NHS website. You can also find South West Bank Holiday maps and opening hours on our website.

All public and patient enquiries, complaints and Freedom of Information Act requests should be directed to england.contactus@nhs.net or telephone 0300 311 22 33.

If you are from a Community Pharmacy in Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, Cornwall & Isles of Scilly, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, North Somerset, Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon or Wiltshire and have a query, please email us at england.pharmacysouthwest@nhs.net

Contact Details

Contact for Controlled Drugs

Please remember to report any controlled drug incidents or concerns to the Controlled Drug Accountable Officer (Jon Hayhurst). For controlled drug general queries please email england.southwestcontrolleddrugs@nhs.net

Visit our Controlled Drugs page for more information.

Reporting Significant Incidents or Concerns

The National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) is a central database of patient safety incident reports. The NLRS Reporting website can be accessed here.

Incidents involving controlled drugs should be reported to the accountable officer online at www.cdreporting.co.uk, see the “Contact for Controlled Drugs” section above for additional information.

Incident report form – form to be used by all pharmacies in the South West when reporting an incident.

NHS Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint about primary care services for GPs, dentists, opticians or pharmacy services please contact NHS England. Additional information regarding leaving feedback or making a complaint can be found here.

Market Entry Applications and Changes of Director and/or Superintendent Pharmacist

Pharmacies planning a Change of Ownership, to relocate premises, consolidate existing premises or open a new pharmacy under The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013 must apply to NHS England & NHS Improvement. The Regulations can be found here:  The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013 (legislation.gov.uk). To apply, please access the Pharmacy Market Management Services (PMMS) through the Primary Care Support England (PCSE) portal.  The relevant application forms are on the website and there is guidance on signing up to the portal and completing and submitting the forms.

Where a pharmacy body corporate appoints a new director or superintendent, or a DAC body corporate appoints a new director, it must notify NHS England & NHS Improvement within 30 days (paragraph 32(4), Schedule 4 and paragraph 22(4), Schedule 5 of the Regulations). The Regulations can be found here: The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013 (legislation.gov.uk). To do this, please access the Pharmacy Market Management Services (PMMS) through the Primary Care Support England (PCSE) portal and complete and submit the relevant forms. There is guidance on the process on the website.

Market Exit

Where a contractor wishes to withdraw from a pharmaceutical list (Market Exit) they are required to give notice of the proposed pharmacy closure to NHS England & NHS Improvement:

  • Pharmacies with 40 core opening hours – at least three months,
  • Pharmacies with 100 core opening hours – at least six months,
  • Pharmacies with more than 40 core opening hours where a direction is in place – at least three months,
  • Dispensing appliance contractors – at least three months

The relevant form can be found here and should be sent to england.pharmacysouthwest@nhs.net

PCSE Supplies / Stationary

Your NHS England and NHS Improvement supplies should be ordered through PCSE Online.

NHS Prescription Services

The NHS Business Services Authority (BSA) NHS Prescription Services, provides prescribing, dispensing and payment information for dispensing contractors.

NHS Prescription Services produces the monthly Drug Tariff on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care. You can view the Drug Tariff on-line.

Changes to Core or Supplementary Hours

Please complete the relevant form if your pharmacy wishes to change their opening hours:

Unplanned Closures

Unplanned closures forms (please note two online forms to complete)

In the event of an unplanned closure, all contractors should immediately complete the ‘reporting an unplanned closure’ service form.  This form can be found on PharmOutcomes under the ‘services’ tab and then under ‘reporting an unplanned closure’. Once full pharmaceutical services have resumed the ‘pharmacy reopening’ service form should be completed.

Where able, all contractors should make every effort to report any unplanned closure and subsequent re-opening via PharmOutcomes. The below paper template should only be used in the absence of access to the PharmOutcomes system.

NHS Mail Shared E-Mail Accounts

All community pharmacies and DAC organisations must be set up with a shared NHS mailbox. This mailbox is separate to your personal mailbox and can be accessed by multiple members of staff. All staff who have access to the shared mailbox can send emails ‘on behalf’ of the mailbox.

NHS Mail accounts are available to community pharmacies to support the secure exchange of patient or sensitive data with other health and social care professionals.  If you have not already applied for your site specific shared e-mail account, please use the following link for information on how to arrange set up: https://support.nhs.net/article-categories/joining-nhsmail/.  If you have any problems using the NHS Mail system you can direct queries to: pharmacyadmin@nhs.net

There have been some amendments in the process for adding additional users to a shared NHS mailbox.

Where there are UNDER 10 users already assigned to a shared mailbox

New staff member(s) will need to have a personal NHSmail account to enable them to have access to the pharmacy shared mailbox. If the pharmacy has less than 10 user accounts assigned to the shared mailbox, the shared mailbox owner will need to raise a request with the pharmacy national helpdesk, (from the shared NHSmail account) emailing pharmacyadmin@nhs.net asking for the personal account to be created. The request will need to include:

  • Pharmacy team members complete name,
  • alternate email address
  • their mobile phone number (as the password will be sent by a text message)
  • confirm if their account will be linked to the shared mailbox and if the account will be an owner or member

Where there are OVER 10 users already assigned to a shared mailbox

If the pharmacy’s shared NHS mailbox has more than 10 users already assigned and require extra new users (personal accounts) to be added, all requests need to be completed on the Additional User Account blank spreadsheet and emailed to england.pharmacysouthwest@nhs.net for authorisation. Once authorised the NHS England South West Community Pharmacy Team will forward the request to the pharmacy national helpdesk for processing.

The NHSMail guide for Organisations provides information/guidance on

  • What to do if you are moving to another organisation
  • What to do when ownership of a community pharmacy changes

NHS UK: Your Profile Page

NHS UK is the primary public facing website of the NHS. It provides comprehensive and trusted health information to help people make the most of their health and get the best out of the healthcare system. The pages include directories of local health services. The site also shows comparative data about healthcare providers, to help people make informed choices about their healthcare. This includes feedback on all NHS services.

If a patient logs onto the website, they will be able to find a profile for each NHS contract. They will also find a Patient Feedback page where they can leave a comment and a rating on their experiences at your pharmacy. It is good practice to acknowledge and respond to comments; your editing rights will include the option to set up permissions for members of your staff to respond to feedback posted to your profile.

If you have any queries, please contact the NHS UK service desk. General support is also available through the PSNC.

NHS England does expect the site to reflect the current service provision so that patients can access the most up to date information. Please ensure that any changes to your profile adhere to any regulatory requirements around proposed changes to opening hours, to include lunch breaks and bank holidays. NHS England will be doing audits around this.

Translation & Interpretation Services for NHS Patients

Interpretation and Translation Services information can be found on our website.

Guidance Resources

Forged prescription guidance

 Specialist Medicines Service 2021

Serious Difficulty Application

Patients can apply to NHS England and Improvement to have their prescriptions dispensed by their GP due to serious difficulty in obtaining them from a pharmacy. Please complete the below form if you wish to apply.

Links to the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessments (PNAs)

Links to Local Pharmaceutical Committees (LPC)

Clinical Waste Services for Pharmacies

NHS England and Improvement has an agreement in place with the following providers:

BaNES, Swindon & Wiltshire
Stericycle (SRCL)
Telephone: 0333 2404400
Email: supportuk@stericycle.com
Website: www.stericycle.co.uk/

Bristol, North Somerset & South Gloucestershire
Tradebe
Telephone: 0845 603 2893
Email: uk.healthcare-customerservice@tradebe.com
Website: www.tradebe.co.uk/

Cornwall & IOS
Peake (GB) Ltd
Telephone: 01579 342212
Email: du.peake@btconnect.com
Website: www.peake-gb.co.uk/clinical-waste/

Devon
PHS
Telephone: 029 2085 1000
Email: rosebristow@phs.co.uk
Website: www.phs.co.uk/

Dorset
Stericycle (SRCL)
Telephone: 0333 2404400
Email: supportuk@stericycle.com
Website: www.stericycle.co.uk/

Gloucestershire
Tradebe
Telephone: 0845 603 2893
Email: uk.healthcare-customerservice@tradebe.com
Website: www.tradebe.co.uk/

Somerset
Stericycle (SRCL)
Telephone: 0333 2404400
Email: supportuk@stericycle.com
Website: www.stericycle.co.uk/

Or

PHS
Telephone: 029 2085 1000
Email: rosebristow@phs.co.uk
Website: www.phs.co.uk/

 

South West Pharmacy Bulletins

2021