Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to implement the planned transformation of the NHS App to support seamless delivery of pharmacy services, including by enabling patients to nominate distance-selling pharmacies for home delivery.

The NHS App supports seamless pharmacy services by allowing patients to order repeat prescriptions, nominate their preferred pharmacy, and manage their medication. A new prescription tracker feature means that nearly 1,500 pharmacies are now offering the new prescription tracking service through the NHS App, which provides updates on when prescriptions are ready to be collected. Work has also commenced on an ‘in App’ notification, which will enhance this feature further.

In relation to nominating distance selling pharmacies (DSPs), users of the NHS App are currently given the option to nominate a ‘high street’ or an ‘online-only’ pharmacy. For those wishing to nominate ‘online-only’ pharmacies, users are directed to the internet pharmacies section, to search for and contact their chosen DSP directly, as key information is required by the DSP before the nomination can be applied.