COVID-19: Community Pharmacy Deliveries by volunteers (Portsmouth)

Written by admin on Friday 3rd April 2020

Delivery by volunteers from the Portsmouth HIVE. Read on for full details...

 

Update: July 2020

The PSS will cease on 31st July 2020 as the COVID-19 shielding programme formally eases. Full details can be read on the following CPSC website news article:

Prescription Support Service (PSS)

An offer of support to pharmacies from Portsmouth City Council. Please read the attached SOPs and sign up...

  • The service has been developed in consultation with and is supported by NHS Portsmouth CCG. Please follow the instructions on the expression of interest if you wish to utilise the HIVE.
  • Volunteers co-ordinated by social care’s Portsmouth HIVE are available to help with deliveries to the extremely vulnerable. The HIVE SOP is attached so you can see how the HIVE volunteers have been asked to work. Please refer to it for a full explanation of the service.
  • HIVE volunteers will have a CCG headed letter  and either PCC staff ID, HIVE volunteer ID or YOU Trust staff ID to credential themselves.
  • They will require a drop sheet as an employed driver would.
  • Having provided the HIVE coordinators with your secure email, it would be helpful if you can set up an email rule that filters emails from the HIVE such that you can prioritise communications with them and free up your phone lines. They will need to know if prescriptions are ready to pick up before coming to get them and you will need to know whether or not you need to contact the patient for card payment over the phone before releasing any medicines.
  • Isolating people may need OTC medicines delivered by a volunteer. If they otherwise meet the inclusion criteria of the Minor Ailments service and the pharmacist is professionally satisfied with a telephone consultation, a supply can be claimed as usual through PharmOutcomes.
  • We encourage all Portsmouth pharmacies to work with the HIVE as per documentation attached, even if they do not wish to book any of their own deliveries through the HIVE.
  • In helping us to support the extremely vulnerable patients in the ways listed in the SOP, it is intended that pressure on pharmacy services will reduce - with people getting the help they need.  

With limited resources, the HIVE will depend on your co-operation to deliver this efficiently on a city-wide basis.

Portsmouth Hive.png

Other actions recommended to help support your pharmacy operation:

  • eRD
    • National recommendation has been made to GP practices to utilise eRD where it can free resource. The CCG medicines optimisation team are helping to support this within practices.
    • Please consider counselling suitable patients about the benefits of eRD so they can ask for it to be set up.
    • Please contact the CCG if any issues with implementing this crop up.
  • EPS
    • Please ask your remaining regular patients without a nomination to nominate you. The CCG medicines optimisation team are helping to support this within practices.
    • Non-Medical prescribers have been given the ability to send prescriptions via EPS.
  • Repeat requests
    • Where appropriate, please signpost patients to their GP’s online services or App to make their repeat requests.
  • Increased script duration
    • There is universal advice about not stockpiling. Please let the CCG know if you have widespread encounter with prescriptions of an increased duration.
Return to News