Community Pharmacy Palliative on-Call Service
One of the many additional asks of community pharmacies during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, was to have sufficient stocks of palliative care medicines in stock in order to support patients and other services such as the GP out of hours and the COVID-19 centres. As these needs often extended outside the normal commercial opening hours of community pharmacies, CPNI worked with HSCB colleagues to develop the Community Pharmacy Palliative on-Call Service which established a rota of pharmacies to assist in these emergency situations.
The service was initiated in Spring 2020 and subsequently stood down in July 2020, on the basis of reduced need. However, following a second surge of COVID-19 virus, the service recommenced in November 2020 and remains under review.