Pharmacy contractors are reminded that the Pandemic Delivery Service is commissioned until today, Thursday 3rd December 2020; deliveries to shielded patients can continue to be made under the service until the end of today. This follows the end of the national lockdown on 2nd December 2020, with clinically extremely vulnerable patients no longer being advised to shield themselves.

DHSC guidance on shielding and protecting people who are clinically extremely vulnerable from COVID-19 from 2nd December

Contractors can claim payments for deliveries made under the Advanced service via the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal; claims should be submitted by 5th January 2021.

Future reactivation of the service

The service will be reactivated if shielding is re-started in any local areas; the service only applied to shielded patients and despite requests to commission a wider service, e.g. for patients self-isolating at home, the Government has decided not to commission such a service.

The current Government guidance says they may advise more restrictive formal shielding measures for the clinically extremely vulnerable in the worst affected Tier 3 areas, based on advice from the Chief Medical Officer. This will only apply to some Tier 3 areas and the Government will write to patients to inform them if they are advised to shield.

A decision to reintroduce shielding in a specific Tier 3 area will trigger NHS England & NHS Improvement to issue a notice to re-commence the service for the shielded patients in the affected area. If this occurs, PSNC will alert contractors via our usual communications channels.