Pandemic Delivery Service extended till Sep 30

NHS England and NHS Improvement on Tuesday (June 29) extended the Pandemic Delivery Service for people who have been notified to self-isolate, till September 30.

The latest announcement follows a decision by the Department of Health and Social Care which means all pharmacies will have to ensure home delivery of prescribed medicines and appliances to all self-isolating people, if they are unable to arrange for a pharmacy pick-up.

This service is available to people only during their ten-day self-isolation period.

Besides, they will have to provide their NHS Test and Trace Account ID while requesting the service.

People undergoing self-isolation, are provided with a unique NHS Test and Trace Account ID, which is an eight-character mix of letters and numbers.

A record of the NHS Test and Trace Account ID reference number must be made and retained as part of the contractor’s delivery record.

Separately, contractors are advised not to submit claims for delivery to Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (CEV) patients, as that service ended on March 31.

NHSE&I has informed that some pharmacy contractors continued to make claims for deliveries to CEV patients. These might be erroneous claims made under the wrong category. From July 2021, such claims will not be processed, the government has said.

Following a steady decline in the number of Covid cases and hospitalisation, the government in March ended the special service for CEV patients. This means those on the shielded patient list were allowed to follow the national restrictions alongside the rest of the population.

The decision was a part of the government’s Covid-19 Response - Spring 2021 roadmap.