MEMBER UPDATE

News update: September 2020

Advanced services in England : changes to consent and other rules

As from the 1st September it is no longer a contractual requirement that written consent is obtained from patients prior to the provision of Advanced Services in England. This change applies to the Flu Vaccination Service, Medicines Use Reviews (MUR), the New Medicine Service (NMS) and Appliance Use Reviews (AUR).
Instead, for these services, verbal consent can be obtained and a record of that made in the pharmacy’s clinical record for the service. These changes were agreed by the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) and will be a significant boost to the provision of these services in the current Covid-19 situation. This is particularly significant with the NMS service as all NMS consultations can now be undertaken by telephone or video consultation, where the patient has previously consented to this and it is clinically appropriate; previously phone consultations were allowed for the intervention and follow-up stages of the service only

Additionally, MURs may now be provided by phone or video consultation, where this is clinically appropriate, and without the contractor having to seek prior approval from NHSE&I.

In all circumstances where telephone or video consultations are used to provide parts of the NMS or MUR, the pharmacist must undertake the consultation in an environment where the conversation cannot be overheard by others.