Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to review plans to introduce a click and collect service as a result of P2U service failings over the 2015 Christmas period.

Alistair Burt

All pharmacies should have a business continuity plan in place which covers not being able to provide a full or any service.

NHS England, in conjunction with the General Pharmaceutical Council, worked urgently with Pharmacy 2 U once it became apparent that this pharmacy was failing to deliver its normal service over the Christmas period. They ensured that Pharmacy 2 U instigated several actions in addition to the business continuity plan that the pharmacy already had in place. The ability to ensure that, where necessary or as requested by the patient, prescriptions were diverted to another pharmacy of the patient’s choice was made significantly easier by the fact that the majority of the prescriptions dispensed by Pharmacy 2 U are sent to them via the Electronic Prescription Service.

Patient safety was the number one priority at the immediate time. Pharmacy 2 U resumed its normal service, as publicised, on 11 January 2016, and there now continues to be a review of the events that led to this situation to ensure that the review of community pharmacy in England is fully informed and national lessons can be learnt from this unexpected and unfortunate event.