The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7174 p701-706
17 November 2001

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On-call community pharmacist pilot scheme launched

Southampton and South West Hampshire Health Authority and the local pharmaceutical committee have launched a community pharmacist on-call pilot scheme.

Currently, a list of pharmacists willing to dispense urgent prescriptions out-of-hours is maintained by the police. However, these pharmacists are not formally on-call and do not guarantee to be available. In the new scheme, in addition to this voluntary list, a number of co-ordinators will take it in turns to be on-call and will be contactable via a mobile phone, the number of which will be made available to general practitioners, deputising services and NHS Direct. So far, 10 pharmacists have agreed to participate.

Andrew Mostyn, primary care medical adviser, and Neil Hardy, pharmaceutical adviser, of the health authority, say that locally there are good extended opening hours for community pharmacies but that the current out-of-hours system does not work well. "The small number of requests means that police stations are often unaware of the procedure, which leads to delays and problems in contacting a pharmacist." Co-ordinators will replace the current police role. On being contacted, they will either arrange with a pharmacist on the voluntary list to supply the required medicines or, if appropriate, supply the medicines themselves.

It is proposed that a co-ordinator will be on duty from 8pm to 8am on weekdays and Saturdays and from 5pm to 8am on Sundays and Public Holidays. While on-call, the pharmacist will be paid £250 per week. The scheme is due to start on 26 November.

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