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Community Pharmacies in Sussex and Surrey are working in challenging circumstances to ensure that everyone gets the medicines they need, when they need them, and tensions are understandably high.

But that does not mean people can go into pharmacy and abuse the staff. Shouting abuse and swearing at staff who are doing their absolute best to keep local residents supplied with medicines is abhorrent and totally unacceptable. 

Two sized poster documents have been developed by the NPA Marketing team to support Pharmacy branches. Both carry the NHS logo. Here they are for you to download, print and display  ZERO Tolerance Poster A4  ZERO Tolerance poster A5.

For more information or for a word document that you can insert your own logo onto 

• • Email: lpc@communitypharmacyss.co.uk 

Victims of domestic abuse are able to use the codeword ANI in pharmacies to let staff know that they require an emergency police response or help contacting a helpline or specialist support service. Participating pharmacies can display posters in their window and around the pharmacy to let customers know that they can approach their staff to seek help.

Getting involved

Any pharmacies who wish to get involved are asked to complete an online form to confirm their decision to provide the scheme, and to ensure that all staff watch the training animation and read the guidance.

Training and promotional materials are available from: Ask for ANI domestic abuse codeword scheme and Ask for ANI and Safe Spaces schemes.

If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to get in touch with the Home Office at: AskforANI@homeoffice.gov.uk.

A joint LPC/LMC statement on the use of MCCA’s is available as available here.

Requests for Multi-compartment dosage aids (MCCA’s/dosette/nomad/blister packs)

• The prescriber is responsible for determining the number of days supply on a prescription. For patients requiring frequent medication changes, the prescriber may decide to prescribe in 7 day quantities, to minimise the amounts of waste that would occur on medication changes. This would be a clinical decision of the prescriber. If 28 day prescriptions have been issued the pharmacy is not obliged to amend what has already been dispensed when a change occurs. A whole new set of prescriptions should be issued with a supply of a new compliance aid (discarding the previous one and its contents) following the pharmacy Standard Operating Procedure. Once medicines have been dispensed by a pharmacist, whether into a MCCA or in manufacturer’s cartons, then no further changes to what has been dispensed should be made by a pharmacist. The NHS terms of service for pharmacies does not require pharmacists to modify previously provided MCCA’s.
• The community pharmacist is the individual who makes the decision on the reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act to enable a patient to take their medication correctly. This could include large print labels, easy to open tops, tick charts, MCCA’s etc. The pharmacist would assess the patient and decide what adjustment would be suitable. The provision of MCCA’s is not an essential service under the pharmacy contract and there is no renumerated service in Surrey or Sussex for the provision of a MCCA.

In a statement published on the 22^nd June 2022, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) said that while MCCAs are “often viewed as a solution” to people experiencing obstacles when taking their medicines, “the limited evidence base suggests a lack of patient benefit outcomes and sometimes they can cause harm”. The RPS pointed to other solutions to help with medicine use. 

The CD Accountable Officer for the South-East NHSE Region is Julie McCann. The CD AO office can be contacted on : england.southeastcdao@nhs.net

For any of the following:

• Report an incident
• Report a concern
• Complete a controlled drug declaration
• Apply to be a temporary authorised witness to witness the destruction of controlled drugs
• Record controlled drugs that have been destroyed

The link to the site is https://www.cdreporting.co.uk/nhs/account/signing

Discharge Medicines Service replaced TCAM on the 15/02/21.

The Discharge Medicines Service (DMS) has complex reporting requirements that need to be completed at the end of each month. These requiremnets see contractors having to enter a lengthy data set for each DMS intervention completed into the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal. This guide from Pinnacle, creators of PharmOutcomes, will help you create a bespoke report to help with your data return. PharmOutcomes User Guide – DMS Reporting.

The report effectively converts your DMS records to the format aligned with the requirements of the MYS portal. This will reduce workload for the pharmacy team members.

To view Surrey DMS webinar click here.

To view Sussex DMS webinar click here.

From 31st July 2023, it is a Terms of Service requirement for each NHS community pharmacy owner to have a business continuity plan for a temporary suspension of service (closure) due to illness or other reason beyond their control, and to action this when necessary.

Community Pharmacy England has developed business continuity plan template for use by contractors; this includes planning for business continuity during periods of disruption to IT services and notices for managing a temporary closure.

https://cpe.org.uk/quality-and-regulations/clinical-governance/emergency-planning/.