GP action: maintaining a safe pharmacy service

General practices across England have started to take action, following a ballot of GP partners by the BMA. This means that many practices are ‘working-to-rule’, only undertaking tasks that are included in their NHS contract.

This may mean fewer appointments with GPs are offered to patients in your area, which is likely to result in more people seeking help and advice from their community pharmacy.

Pharmacy owners need to maintain the safety of their services, with the safe supply of medicines being a key priority.

If due to local action by GPs, patient demand for services and advice outstrips your capacity to provide it, you may need to activate part of your business continuity plan*.

For example, that may mean you decide you must prioritise all staff time to focus on the dispensing service and dealing with patients referred by NHS 111 or general practices, rather than people walking in or contacting the pharmacy for help and advice.

The Joint communication from the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England and the Chief Executive of the General Pharmaceutical Council published in January this year notes that in the year ahead, pharmacy owners and their teams may need to use their professional judgement to assess and mitigate risk, and to deliver safe and effective care for your patients within your scope of practice.

* Within multiple pharmacy groups, pharmacists can seek guidance and support from their head office on how to activate business continuity plans and any necessary prioritisation of services.

Communicating with patients

If your pharmacy is affected by local action by GPs, you should communicate this to your patients, making sure it is clear why the pharmacy team is under even more pressure than normal.

Template posters are provided below, which you can personalise and print to display in the pharmacy. The wording could also be used on your website, social media or be distributed via other communications channels.

The first poster is to be used where a pharmacy is experiencing high demand, but has not yet had to prioritise their service delivery:

GP action – experiencing high demand – template poster (PDF)

GP action – experiencing high demand – template poster (Word)

The second poster can be used when a pharmacy has had to prioritise the services it is able to provide:

GP action – services being prioritised – template poster (PDF)

GP action – services being prioritised – template poster (Word)

Feeding back about the local situation

Please let your LPC know about what actions local GP practices are taking and how that is affecting your ability to provide services to your patients, so the LPC can share this intelligence with local NHS partners and work with us to monitor the situation across the country.

Our view on the situation

Commenting on the BMA advice to general practices, Janet Morrison, Chief Executive, Community Pharmacy England said:

“If patients can’t access their GP practice many will turn to their local pharmacies for help, as happened throughout the pandemic. But pharmacies are already under considerable strain as everybody in the sector is only too aware.

“Pharmacy teams will always do their best to help patients during times of crisis – but they can only do so much. They may have to prioritise the safe supply of NHS prescriptions and dealing with patients referred by NHS 111 over other NHS services. Patient safety is our utmost concern and pharmacy owners may need to activate parts of their business continuity plans, including prioritising the safe supply of NHS prescriptions.

“We are asking the public to be patient and to treat pharmacy teams with respect when you are coping with additional workload from this general practice action. And we will continue to push the new Government and NHS England to address the underfunding of pharmacy services, as GP teams are not the only people in primary care who are exhausted, overworked and struggling to make ends meet.”

Click here to read our comment issued to the national media