From April 2023, patients who are in immediate need or require emergency repeat medications will need to visit www.111.nhs.uk or call 111. This may include running out of medication, losing or damaging medicines, or patients going away from home and forgetting their medication.
Patients will continue to have access to urgent supplies but from 1 April 2023 the locally commissioned service ended and is now available via the national NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service. The fundamental difference is that under the NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service, patients requiring an urgent supply of repeat medication will need to contact NHS111 (by telephone or online) to be referred to a local participating pharmacy. Patients will therefore no longer be able to be referred via GP practices, GP Out of Hours providers or just contact a pharmacy directly.
By contacting NHS 111 online or over the phone, patients in immediate need of medication will be assessed and, where needed, a supply from a local community pharmacy will be arranged.
