The new contractual requirement for community pharmacy contractors and their teams to advise appropriate patients about the benefits of the NHS repeat dispensing service will commence from March 2015.
The service can free up time for GP practices; provide a more convenient service for patients; and also help pharmacies to manage their repeat prescription workload more efficiently so as many people as possible should be encouraged to use the service.
Repeat dispensing has been an Essential service since 2005; the new requirement means that pharmacy teams will now need to actively work to identify appropriate patients and provide them with information about it.
These patients include those that
- Have a long term, stable medical condition (that is, a medical condition that is unlikely to change in the short to medium term), and
- Require regular medicine in respect of that medical condition
Is your pharmacy ready for the change? Have you updated your SOP’s?