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Checked: 16-04-2024 by Vicky Ryan Next Review: 15-04-2026

Locally Commissioned Services

The ICB commissions several services from Community Pharmacy

Antiviral LES
PGD Service
Tuberculosis Directly Observed Therapy LES
Specialist Medicines LES

For further information e-mail the medicines optimisation team bnssg.medicines-optimisation@nhs.net

Nationally Commissioned Services

Pharmacy First

The following link gives information on the Pharmacy First service (formerly Community Pharmacy Consultation Service - CPCS) including the 7 most common conditions that can be treated and how to make a referral from general practice:

NHS England » Practices referring patients to Pharmacy First for lower acuity minor illnesses and clinical pathway consultations

Pharmacists are trained to recognise ‘red flag’ symptoms suggestive of more serious illness. After initial triage, if symptoms do suggest something more serious, the pharmacist will help the patient to arrange an urgent GP appointment using the practice’s dedicated professional number or, if needed, escalate to an urgent care setting such as the emergency department.

The following page also has a link to the clinical pathways used by pharmacies for the commonly treated conditions:

NHS England » Launch of NHS Pharmacy First advanced service

Emergency Prescriptions

Patients requiring an urgent supply of repeat medication will need to contact NHS111 by telephone or online Emergency prescriptions – NHS 111. NHS 111 will then direct them to a pharmacy (or an urgent care centre if appropriate). If the medicine is supplied, they will be charged the relevant prescription charge unless they are eligible for free prescriptions.

Please do not send patients directly to a community pharmacy within surgery opening hours. If practices cannot support an urgent supply of a medicine please ask the patient to ring NHS111 or use the online service.

Please remind patients to order their repeat medication in plenty of time to give practices and pharmacy time to process their prescriptions and where possible order via the NHS App.

Prescriptions, Dispensing and Consultation

Electronic Prescription Service (EPS)

Electronic Repeat Dispensing (eRD)

South West (South) Community Pharmacy information

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

Controlled Drugs, Incidents or Concerns

Please remember to report any controlled drug incidents or concerns to the Controlled Drug Accountable Officer

Darren Barnett - Interim Controlled Drugs Accountable Officer NHS England South West

Tel: 07718 130 490

Controlled Drug incident reporting: www.cdreporting.co.uk

Controlled drug general queries email: england.southwestcontrolleddrugs@nhs.net

For further information: NHS England — South West » Controlled drugs

Efforts are made to ensure the accuracy and agreement of these guidelines, including any content uploaded, referred to or linked to from the system. However, BNSSG ICB cannot guarantee this. This guidance does not override the individual responsibility of healthcare professionals to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual patient, in consultation with the patient and/or guardian or carer, in accordance with the mental capacity act, and informed by the summary of product characteristics of any drugs they are considering. Practitioners are required to perform their duties in accordance with the law and their regulators and nothing in this guidance should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with compliance with those duties.

Information provided through Remedy is continually updated so please be aware any printed copies may quickly become out of date.