Local Arrangements for Volunteers and Deliveries

please ensure all your staff and locums are aware of this new process should it be needed for emergency deliveries

Council Volunteers

North Staffs & Stoke Chief Officer, Tania Cork, has been working with local councils on behalf of all pharmacies in Staffordshire to come up with a plan to support pharmacies during the Covid pandemic.

From her discussions we learned that the councils are keen to support pharmacy contractors meet the demands being placed on them during the Covid-19 pandemic and that they have volunteers waiting to help.

The councils are trying to match volunteers with pharmacies so they can help with medicine deliveries to both the most vulnerable (“Shielded”) patients and those who may be self-isolating for other reasons.

The LPCs have been asked to find out which pharmacies in which areas are struggling and then work with the council to direct volunteers to the areas of greatest need.

They are also interested to know if there would be any interest in having a volunteer at your pharmacy to perhaps man the pharmacy door and to find out what people are attending the pharmacy for, or answering the phone for you – this could potentially free up your staff to complete other important jobs within the pharmacy.

Caution: if you work for a multiple please contact your Line Manager/ Area Manager / Head Office find out about your company’s position on using volunteers before you go any further.

If you require help via a council volunteer, either to help with deliveries or to help within your pharmacy please contact Tania on taniacork@northstaffslpc.co.uk

Urgent Deliveries of Palliative Medicines or Acute Meds eg pain relief and/ or urgent antibiotics

Blood Biker Urgent Medicine Deliveries:

For emergency deliveries we now have the Blood Biker on board to help you. This service is to be used as a last resort and could be used for the patient that need medicines very quickly and the pharmacy can not accommodate. For example,  palliative care medicines or patient with acute medicines (antibiotic pain killers). The blood bikers service is available 24/7.  These blood bikers can carry controlled drugs, although the pharmacist must still carry out due diligence checks to ensure they are happy with the biker.
Please call the blood bikers on:
0845 860 2203
Please have the following information to give to the controller;

  • Your name, pharmacy and contact number
  • Collection and Delivery addresses
  • Item to be transported
  • Time collection is required

Riders will be on liveried bikes, uniformed and carry ID.

 

Fire and Rescue Service Urgent Medicine Deliveries:

Emergency Response Covid-19 (Coronavirus):  Service Activity Instruction – Collection and Delivery of medication, including controlled drugs – Service runs until the 30th June 2020, this will be reviewed and extended if needed 

This service is to be used as a last resort

Time critical/Urgent medical supplies needed to be delivered to a patient – An example of where this service can be called upon is for the delivery of palliative care medicines to an End of Life patient or a patient with acute items, such as pain killers or antibiotics etc, that need immediately. 

 Step 1

 Text or call the fire rescue service on  07971893201  with the Pharmacy Name and Address, Phone number and lead contact person’s name 

 Step 2 

Howard (Team Leader for fire and rescue) will allocate a responder that is based in the local area to the pharmacy 

 Step 3 

A responder collects and signs for (if needed) the medication to be delivered. 

 

 DO’s and DON’Ts for the Fire and Rescue Responders

 DO

  • Show your Fire and Rescue ID to the community pharmacy 
  • Take the sealed medication bag(s) from the community pharmacist and the activity form Medication collection and delivery record 
  • If required by the community pharmacy, sign for the medication. The community pharmacist will normally require this if the sealed bag(s) contains Controlled Drugs. 
  • Place the medication bags(s) in a safe place in the vehicle, preferably in the locked boot of the vehicle and out of sight. 
  • On arrival at the person’s home, check the name and address on the medication bag(s) against that on the bag label 
  • Ring the doorbell/ knock door and leave the medication sealed bag(s) and your service contact card on the doorstep 
  • Step back 2 metres and wait until the person answers the door and picks up the medication bag(s).  
  • Once picked up by the person, return to vehicle and update and SIGN the Medication collection and delivery record confirming the number of sealed medication bag(s) delivered and picked up by the person and SIGN confirming completion of the task. 
  • If there is no answer, pick up the medication bag(s), return to your vehicle; return the medication bag(s) to the named community pharmacist. 
  • If medication is returned to the pharmacist, note this on the Medication collection and delivery record  
  • Ask the community pharmacist to countersign the Medication collection and delivery record confirming return of sealed medication bag(s).   
  • Keep all paperwork with personal information in a safe and secure place 
  • Only with prior agreement enter the person’s home and hand them the sealed medication bag(s) 

 

DON’T 

  • Don’t collect medication for anyone not named on your daily activity sheet  
  • Don’t forget your ID 
  • Don’t accept a medication bag from the community pharmacist if not sealed 
  • Don’t ask the community pharmacist to list the contents of the sealed medication bags.  
  • Don’t forget to check the name and address on the medication package matches that on your activity sheet.  
  • Don’t open the sealed medication bag(s) under any circumstances 
  • Don’t leave the sealed medication bags(s) in open view in your car 
  • Don’t carry the medication bag(s) with you if undertaking other support activities prior to delivery of the medication. 
  • Don’t forget to check the name and address of the person prior to leaving the medication at their doorstep 
  • Don’t leave the medication bag(s) on the doorstep if the person does not answer the door.  
  • Don’t forget to leave your service contact card with the sealed medication bag(s)  
  • Don’t forget to return undelivered medication bag(s) to the named community pharmacist 
  • Don’t forget to ask the community pharmacist to countersign the Medication collection and delivery record confirming return of sealed medication bag(s). 
  • Don’t hand the collected medication bags to anyone else to deliver  
  • Don’t enter the person’s home if not previously arranged 
  • Don’t leave paperwork with personal information where other people may see or access the information  
  • Don’t share any information about the person you are collecting medication for with anyone other than a relevant community pharmacist  

 

Please note we have advised the responder to skip any queue and go straight to the pharmacy to collect via pharmacy team.