Pharmaceutical Care Services Plan - NHS Lanarkshire

2. Disability Discrimination Act
All pharmacies have been given guidance about the Disabilities Discrimination Act and
their requirement to take reasonable actions to make their pharmacies accessible for all.
ADEQUACY COMMENT
118 pharmacies in NHS Lanarkshire self report as being accessible. It is important that
within a community patients with disabilities can easily access at least one pharmacy.
Our records indicate that this is achieved with the sole exception being the village of
Glenboig. Whist this village is the only area where this aspiration is not automatically met
from a readily accessible pharmacy, the pharmacy staff will respond to request for help in
accessing the service from any patient who has difficulty.
3. Opening Hours
The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2009, as
amended, requires NHS Boards to produce a scheme of model opening hours. The
model opening hours for Lanarkshire are Monday to Friday 9.00am to 6.00pm, Saturday
9.00am to 5.00pm with the ability to have one week day early closure of 9.00am to
1.00pm. Each pharmacy is allowed an hour to close at lunch time.
ADEQUACY COMMENT
A high proportion of pharmacies within Lanarkshire open extended hours, one until
10.30pm at night and 16 are open 7days per annum. In addition, very few pharmacies
close over the lunch time period.
Public holiday cover is arranged in consultation with the contractors, Area Pharmaceutical
Committee and Out of Hours services to ensure that all needs are covered.
4. Dispensing of Prescriptions
The timeous and accurate dispensing of prescriptions remains the principal function of
the of the NHS community pharmacy service. All 121 community pharmacies in NHS
Lanarkshire provide this service and in 2009/10 over 11 million prescriptions were
dispensed
ADEQUACY COMMENT
The Health Board has no evidence of patients having difficulty in accessing dispensing
services
5. Minor Ailments Service
The Minor Ailments Service facilitates the NHS treatment of minor ailments by
pharmacists working within their community pharmacies. This service is available to
patients exempt from the standard categories of prescription charges and provides:
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