Due to the ongoing local COVID-19 outbreaks in various areas across England, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has decided that the pandemic delivery service requirements should continue to apply from 24th September 2020 until 5th October 2020, but only for shielded patients who live in the following local outbreak areas:

• 8 wards within North East Blackburn outlined in THIS LINK; and
• Leicester City as outlined in THIS LINK.

This change to the service requirements was announced in a letter published by NHS England and NHS Improvement today.

Further announcements may be made depending on Government advice and decisions.

The Terms of Service requirements therefore continue to apply to all contractors in England, but as they only relate to shielded patients living in the local outbreak areas, it is very unlikely that contractors, other than those located in and close to the areas, will need to provide support with delivery of prescriptions to those shielded patients.

Contractors located in the local outbreak areas will continue to receive the Essential service payment.

If a contractor (excluding Distance Selling Pharmacies), located anywhere in England, is asked to deliver a prescription to a shielded patient living in one of the local outbreak areas, this can continue to be done between the above dates, under the terms of the Advanced service and a claim for payment can be made by 5th November 2020 via the Manage Your Service (MYS) platform.

Further information on the service can be found here