The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2005

Pharmacy opening hours: general

22.—(1) A pharmacist shall ensure that pharmaceutical services are provided at each of the premises from which he has undertaken to provide pharmaceutical services—

(a)for not less than 40 hours each week;

(b)for not less than 100 hours each week, in the case of premises in respect of which the condition imposed by regulation 13(2)(a) applies as regards the pharmacist’s inclusion in a pharmaceutical list;

(c)if his Primary Care Trust, or on appeal the Secretary of State, has directed (either under this Part or paragraph 4 of Schedule 2 to the 1992 Regulations) that he may provide pharmaceutical services at the premises for fewer than 40 hours per week, provided that he provides those services at set times and on set days, at the times and on the days so set;

(d)if his Primary Care Trust, or on appeal the Secretary of State, has directed under paragraph 4 of Schedule 2 to the 1992 Regulations that he must provide pharmaceutical services at the premises for more than 40 hours per week, and at set times and on set days, at the times and on the days so set; or

(e)if his Primary Care Trust, or on appeal the Secretary of State, has directed under this Part that he must provide pharmaceutical services at the premises for more than 40 hours each week—

(i)for the total number of hours each week required by virtue of that direction, and

(ii)as regards the additional hours for which he is required to provide pharmaceutical services by virtue of that direction, at the days on which and times at which he is required to provide pharmaceutical services during those additional hours, as set out in that direction,

but a Primary Care Trust may, in appropriate circumstances, agree a temporary suspension of services for a set period, where it has received three months notice of the proposed suspension.

(2) Subject to sub-paragraph (3), at each of the premises from which a pharmacist has undertaken to provide pharmaceutical services, he shall exhibit—

(a)a notice specifying the days on which and times at which the premises are open for the provision of drugs and appliances;

(b)at times when the premises are not open, a notice based on information provided by the Primary Care Trust, where practicable legible from outside the premises, specifying the addresses of other pharmacists included in the pharmaceutical list and the days on which and times at which drugs and appliances may be obtained from those addresses; and

(c)at times when the premises are not open, a notice based on information provided by the Primary Care Trust, where practicable legible from outside the premises, specifying the addresses of LPS chemists in the neighbourhood, the type of local pharmaceutical services which those LPS chemists provide, and the days on which and times at which their premises are open.

(3) Sub-paragraph (2) shall not apply in respect of premises at which pharmaceutical services are provided by a distance selling chemist.

(4) A pharmacist shall, on request, submit a return to the Primary Care Trust setting out—

(a)the days on which and times at which pharmaceutical services are provided at each of the premises from which he has undertaken to provide pharmaceutical services (including times at which he is providing pharmaceutical services when he is not obliged to do so by virtue of sub-paragraph (1)); and

(b)the pharmaceutical services which he ordinarily provides at each of those premises,

but all pharmacists, if they are on a pharmaceutical list on 1st April 2005, shall supply such a return to their Primary Care Trusts by 1st July 2005 and shall state in that return if the days and times submitted represent a change to the days on which and times at which they provided pharmaceutical services at those premises prior to 1st April 2005.

(5) Where a pharmacist changes—

(a)the days on which or times at which pharmaceutical services are to be provided at premises from which he has undertaken to provide pharmaceutical services; or

(b)the pharmaceutical services which he is ordinarily to provide at those premises,

he shall supply the Primary Care Trust with a return informing it of the change.

(6) Where a pharmacist has submitted a return under sub-paragraph (4) or (5) in respect of any premises, or where he has set out in an application under these Regulations for inclusion in a pharmaceutical list the days on which and times at which pharmaceutical services will be provided at the premises to which the application relates if the application is granted—

(a)he shall ensure that pharmaceutical services are provided at the premises to which the return or application relates on the days and at the times set out in the return or application (unless the return or application has been superseded by a return, or a further return, under sub-paragraph (5)); and

(b)he shall not change—

(i)the days on which or the times at which pharmaceutical services are to be provided at those premises; or

(ii)the pharmaceutical services which he is ordinarily to provide at those premises,

as set out in that return or application, for a period of at least three months after that return or application was received by the Primary Care Trust.

(7) Subject to sub-paragraph (8), where a pharmacist is prevented by illness or other reasonable cause from complying with his obligations under sub-paragraph (1), he shall, where practicable, make arrangements with one or more pharmacists or LPS chemists whose premises are situated in the neighbourhood for the provision of pharmaceutical services or local pharmaceutical services during that time.

(8) A pharmacist may make an arrangement with an LPS chemist under sub-paragraph (7) only where that LPS chemist provides local pharmaceutical services which are of a similar description as, and a similar extent to, the pharmaceutical services which he ordinarily provides.

(9) Where there is a temporary suspension in the provision of pharmaceutical services by a pharmacist for a reason beyond the control of the pharmacist, the pharmacist shall not be in breach of sub-paragraphs (1) and (2), provided that—

(a)he notifies the Primary Care Trust of that suspension as soon as practical; and

(b)he uses all reasonable endeavours to resume provision of pharmaceutical services as soon as is practicable.

(10) Planned refurbishment of a pharmacy is neither a “reasonable cause” for the purposes of sub-paragraph (7) nor a “reason beyond the control of the pharmacist” for the purposes of sub-paragraph (9).

(11) For the purposes of calculating the number of hours that a pharmacy is open during a week that includes Christmas Day, Good Friday or a bank holiday, it shall be deemed that the pharmacy was open on that day at the times at which it would ordinarily have been open on that day of the week.

(12) In this Part, the “additional hours” for which a pharmacist is to be required to provide pharmaceutical services are those hours during which the pharmacist would not be providing pharmaceutical services, were he subject to the condition set out in sub-paragraph (1)(a) and not the condition set out in sub-paragraph (1)(e).