NEW Service Reporting Unplanned Closures on PharmOutcomes…

As you will all be aware, if a pharmacy is unable to provide services at any point during its opening hours (both core and/or supplementary) then there may be a ‘temporary suspension in the provision of pharmaceutical services’, also known as an ‘unplanned closure’.

Contractors have previously been requested to complete a notification form providing details of the reason for the closure, the steps being taken to resume services and the measures put in place to mitigate the effect for patients.

In order to support contractors with this reporting process (including the things contractors must consider when closing), a new service has been created and is now available on PharmOutcomes for all contractors in the South West.

The form can be found under the ‘services’ tab under the sub heading ‘unplanned closures’ where there are 2 services:

• ‘Reporting an unplanned closure’, and
• ‘Pharmacy reopening service’.

In the event of an unplanned closure, all contractors should immediately complete the ‘reporting an unplanned closure’ service, then, once full pharmaceutical services (business as usual) has resumed the ‘pharmacy reopening’ service should then be completed.

NHS England may request that a contractor provides further details regarding a closure, in appropriate cases, in line with local policy, the details of which can be found on our website HERE

Resources:

• Unplanned-closures-policy-v1.1-Jan17
• unplanned-closures-template updated 2017
• Service Continuity Planning Template