Amendments to the NHS (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013 have been laid before parliament, and will come into force in two stages.
From 1st April the terms of service will require NHS pharmacists who have access to the summary care record (SCR) to access this if they consider, in their clinical judgment that it is in the best interests of the patient to do so.
If an NHS pharmacist does access the SCR then this must be in accordance with The NHS Care Record Guarantee guidance available here.
Additionally, from 1st July NHS pharmacists (including pharmacy staff) must inform persons presenting a prescription on which an exemption declaration has been made without producing evidence of entitlement to exemption (where evidence is required) that NHS checks are routinely undertaken to verify that persons are exempt from payment of NHS prescription charges as part of the relevant arrangements for preventing or detecting fraud or error.
Source: www.psnc.org.uk
