Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what additional support was provided to pharmacies in response to the closure of GP surgeries during the initial phase of the covid-19 lockdown.

The Human Medicines Regulations 2012 outline provisions for emergency supply by a pharmacist, including one when a pandemic is declared or imminently anticipated. This specific provision has been utilised at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, to allow NHS England and NHS Improvement to commission a local enhanced service - where one is needed, for example when a general practitioner surgery closes – to enable pharmacists to supply medicines, which patients have been previously prescribed, without a prescription, and at the same time reducing administrative burden on pharmacies.

Funds were also made available to support pharmacies to deliver medicines to shielded population and, since March, we have made available £350 million in extra advance payments to alleviate cash flow pressures.