NPA: Keep temporary pharmacy closure flexibility while pandemic ongoing
A flexible, “common-sense” approach should be adopted when it comes to policies involving temporary pharmacy closures, the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has argued.
In March 2020, the government issued an emergency declaration allowing for flexible provision of pharmaceutical services during the pandemic – including the ability to make temporary changes to pharmacies’ opening hours in exceptional circumstances.
The declaration – which is coming to an end today (March 31) – allows pharmacies to change their opening hours for a short amount of time, on the condition they give at least a 24 hours’ notice of the changes to NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) along with “adequate reasons”.
But the NPA believes that a further extension to the declaration is needed, while NHSE&I needs to retain its current “sensible” approach when overseeing the process in the future, an NPA spokesperson told C+D today.
Read more: Lloydspharmacy superintendent: More pharmacists needed to stop partial pharmacy closures
“Pharmacies are still struggling to get cover. Therefore, one of two things should happen. Either, the emergency provision should continue. But obviously, we recognise that that is happening very imminently,” they added. “Or, NHSE&I needs to be pragmatic in its interpretation and enforcement of the 2013 provisions so pharmacies aren’t caught in an impossible position.”
Prior to the pandemic, contractors could make “temporary arrangements during emergencies or because of circumstances beyond the control of NHS chemists” under The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013 legislation.
But the NPA believes that these pre-pandemic regulations do not offer enough flexibility.
The 24 hours’ notice of changes permissible under the emergency declaration is “helpful”, the NPA spokesperson added. “We're still mid pandemic. We're still very much in the thick of it.”
What “adequate reasons” could pharmacies put forward to temporarily close a pharmacy during the pandemic?
Gordon Hockey, director of operations and support at the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC), told C+D in April 2021 that “reduced staff” or “staff fatigue and exhaustion” could be reasonable causes for making an application for temporary closure, or for a change to opening hours.
Meanwhile, PSNC specified on its website that the emergency provision could also be used in cases where a contractor is “unable to engage a pharmacist… despite best endeavours to do so”.
NPA vice chair Nick Kaye argued that the sector must “retain the common sense option to close if we can’t operate the pharmacy safely due to staff shortages”.
While pharmacists do not want to “let their community down by closing unnecessarily”, he said yesterday, they should also not “be forced to offer patients a substandard and potentially unsafe service due to inadequate staffing”.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DH) has indicated that it would consider a new declaration of emergency should there be a new wave of the pandemic, PSNC wrote in an update last week.
Mr Kaye commented: “I think that’s the position we are in right now.”
“The NPA has asked NHSE&I to take a pragmatic view in terms of enforcement, recognising the very real workforce challenges pertaining at this time,” Mr Kaye added.
An NHSE&I spokesperson told C+D that the DH would be best placed to provide an answer. A spokesperson for the DH told C+D today that it keeps “all measures under review in the event we need to respond to future threats”. This includes “the emergency declaration for pharmacies”, they added.
CCA: “We urge NHSE&I to work with us and the sector”
Meanwhile, the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) said it still has “serious concerns of staffing shortages”.
Pharmacy teams are being forced to make “the difficult decision of altering work hours”, it said this morning.
“We urge NHSE&I to work with us and the sector to co-ordinate a comprehensive workforce plan and ensure patients can receive the care from community pharmacies that they have become accustomed to during the pandemic,” the CCA added.
Read more: Lloydspharmacy: We only adopt ‘part-closure policy’ where pharmacist cannot be secured
In January, Lloydspharmacy announced it would continue to operate temporarily reduced trading hours at some of its 100-hour branches located in Sainsbury’s supermarkets, after they were initially reduced under the emergency declaration on November 8 last year.
The multiple claimed at the time that this move would help it ease workforce pressures and “ensure we can offer pharmaceutical provision to our patients during the reduced trading hours within the week”.
PDA: Regulations should not be used “inappropriately”
Commenting on the conclusion of emergency provisions, the Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) said that the measures were “rightly introduced for extreme circumstances during the height of the early COVID-19 pandemic”.
However, the union is aware of concerns raised by pharmacists during this period around “some employers” approaching “safety regulations inappropriately”, including “asking pharmacist to break the law”, it added.
It concluded: “The end of these temporary regulations should leave pharmacy businesses in no doubt about their obligations to deliver the pharmaceutical services that they have committed to provide.”
