COVID-19
All information required can be found on the CPE Covid-19 Hub
A wealth of useful and practical information is available from the following key organisations on their websites:
- Community Pharmacy England, CPE (NB there are a number of useful FAQs here)
- General Pharmaceutical Council, GPhC
- Royal Pharmaceutical Society, RPSg
- National Pharmacy Association, NPA
The GPhC has published and will continue to publish new standards in their knowledge hub that helpfully clarifies some of the key areas for COVID-19 that may be causing you queries such as working with other pharmacies and volunteer groups. The standards will continue to be updated with new areas as and when they arise. This can be found on the knowledge hub of the GPhC website.
The pathway for community access to COVID-19 treatment is changing from 1 April 2024. Eligible patients reporting a positive test should be advised to call 111 urgently for an assessment for COVID-19 treatments.
Hertfordshire and West Essex (HWE) Integrated Care Board (ICB) has commissioned Hertfordshire Urgent Care (HUC) to clinically assess patients who contact them with a positive COVID test with the highest risk of an adverse COVID-19 outcome. Following assessment of the patient including for eligibility in line with national recommendations, if appropriate and clinically suitable a COVID-19 oral antiviral may be prescribed. HUC will issue an eFP10 and advise the patient or patient’s representative to contact the community pharmacy to arrange supply.
Oral antivirals for treating COVID-19, Paxlovid® (nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir) and Lagevrio® (Molnupiravir), are available to order by community pharmacies. from Alliance Healthcare. This stock is being provided free of charge for NHS prescriptions by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The Drug Tariff reflects a nominal reimbursement fee and dispensed prescriptions will generate a single activity fee. This supports the transition of community-based COVID-19 treatments into routine care pathways, enabling community pharmacies to supply against a prescription, as for any other medicine prescribed on a FP10.
As these are two new medications you will be dispensing, HWE ICB has developed a supportive presentation which may help you and your pharmacy team to become familiar with these and have the necessary knowledge to dispense safely and be able to counsel the patient.
HUC is giving advice to patients that a representative should collect the medicines rather than the patient themselves and there is no expectation on your pharmacy to deliver the medicines to the patient’s home unless this is already part of your service offering.
Next steps:
- Please let your teams know that you may start receiving prescriptions from HUC from 1 April 2024. In preparation for this date, please consider how you will order this stock as a prescription should be dispensed on the same day as prescribed due to the nature of the condition.
- Please refer to the HWE ICB presentation to help support staff dispense safely and counsel patient or patient representative.
- Should a situation arise where you are presented with a FP10 for Paxlovid® (nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir) which you are unable to fulfil, please support the patient with identifying a neighbouring pharmacy which does hold stock, so that treatment can be accessed as soon as possible.
CPH has requested that HUC contact details for prescription queries should be provided to all community pharmacies and that a training event should be considered and offered to support community pharmacists.
For any queries, please contact hweicbhv.medicinesoptimisationteam@nhs.net.
Community Pharmacy COVID-19 Vaccination Sites
View pharmacies in Hertfordshire and West Essex registered to provide COVID-19 vaccinations
We will update the list of pharmacies as soon as we are aware of any changes.
The CPH office has put in support to those that are currently live and have worked with the system to ensure that community pharmacy provision is optimised for those that want to get involved in the COVID-19 vaccination programme. Please note that the local system is no longer actively seeking expressions of interest for further pharmacies to be designated as community pharmacy vaccination sites.
Further information on the COVID-19 vaccination programme particularly to advise patients can be found on the Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care System website.
Please click here for a list of pharmacy contractors offering the Spring 2024 Covid booster vaccination.
Covid Newsletter – March 2024
The Lateral Flow Device Test Supply Service is an advanced service where community pharmacy contractors will need to register via NHSBSA’s MYS portal in order to provide the service. The service will be available to register on the MYS portal from 6 November 2023.
This is a walk-in service where patients/patients’ representatives can collect one box of five LFD tests from a participating community pharmacy, on confirmation that the patient is part of the cohort which is potentially eligible for COVID-19 treatments.
Operational Note from NHS England (updated 14.3.24)
For further information and resources please visit the CPE website.
Pharmacies in Hertfordshire and west Essex registered to provide the Lateral Flow Device Service (updated 27 June 2024)
Virtual Outcomes
Virutal Outcomes have produced an 8 minute video on how to deliver this new advanced service. The course will cover, who is eligible for the free LFD tests, how to identify them and how to claim. Please note, CPH currently do not subscribe to Virtual Outcomes and pharmacies will have to subscribe to access the training.
