Bank Holiday Rota Service
A pharmacy must open to provide pharmaceutical services for its core contractual and supplementary hours each week. But, where the pharmacy would ordinarily be open on a day which is Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Christmas Day or a bank holiday, the hours that it would ordinarily be open will, on those days, be treated as having been open for the purpose of counting the core contractual hours that week.
This means a pharmacy that has 8 core contractual hours on Monday to Friday, will, during the week leading up to Easter, be open for 8 hours on Monday to Thursday making 32 hours in total, and may close on Good Friday, because the 8 hours that the pharmacy is ordinarily open on a Friday are counted towards the 40 hours requirement, irrespective of whether the pharmacy is open. These are straightforward provisions, but the way that bank holidays are declared does cause some anomalies.
In England, the days that a pharmacy will not normally be required to open are:
- New Year’s Day
- Good Friday
- Easter Sunday
- Easter Monday
- Early May Bank Holiday
- Spring Bank Holiday
- Summer Bank Holiday
- Christmas Day
- Boxing Day
On these days, the core contractual hours at the times at which it would have ordinarily been open are counted towards the core contractual requirement without the pharmacy having to open on those days and at those times.
The NHS Regulations provide that Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Christmas day are always treated in this way. But, for the other days, the status of the day depends on whether it has been formally declared as a bank holiday – or whether a substitute day has been introduced. Up to date information can be found on the Government’s business website.
The Regional Pharmacy Contracting Team commission Pharmacy cover for Christmas Day, New Year’s Day and Easter Sunday where there is a need. This provision is paid for by ICBs and is provided by willing pharmacies who offer to open. Many pharmacies choose to open over bank holiday for business reasons although there is no contractual requirement to open. These pharmacy opening times are utilised wherever possible so that ICBs can endeavour to provide acceptable patient care and access to medicines cost effectively across the East Anglia.
Pharmacy Bank Holiday rota door posters are no longer produced to show the cover provided in each of the areas . There is however a generic poster which can be used to direct patients to the most up to date pharmacy opening times on the NHS website. Pharmacies should ensure that they update their Bank Holiday opening hours via the NHS Profile Manager
