The community pharmacy home delivery service in England has been further extended for people who have been told to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace, NHS England and Improvement (NHSE&I) has confirmed.

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In a letter sent to pharmacy contractors this week (29 September), NHSE&I said the service will now run until 31 March 2022.

‘Pharmacies and dispensing doctors across England will be required to ensure those people who have been notified by NHS Test and Trace to self-isolate can receive their prescription medicines and appliances by home delivery during the ten-day self-isolation period if they are unable to arrange for medicines to be picked up,’ the letter explained.

This comes as over 36,000 people in the UK tested positive for Covid-19 on one day (30 September) and over 246,000 people tested positive over the past week – a 6% increase from the previous week.

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Contractors can claim payment for the delivery of medicines to clinically extremely vulnerable patients under the Community Pharmacy Home Delivery Service on the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal.

The pandemic delivery service came to an end for clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) patients in March after many lockdown restrictions were lifted and the group were told they no longer had to shield.

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NHS England and NHS Improvement relaunched the pandemic delivery service — which was due to end on 19 February — in January, after the Government announcement of the commencement of a new national lockdown in England.