Getting ready to provide the Pharmacy Contraception Service

Sign up to provide service 

Pharmacy owners must notify NHS England that they intend to provide the service by completion of an electronic registration through the NHSBSA’s MYS portal. 

The pharmacy’s NHS website profile must be updated to indicate that the service is provided. Guidance on how to edit NHS website pharmacy profiles is available on the NHS website page of the Community Pharmacy England website. 

NHS Profile Manager

Update your pharmacy’s service details on the NHS website using NHS Profile Manager. This will allow your pharmacy to be identified by the public and by other healthcare professionals as providers of the service.

Details on how to do this are available on the NHS Profile Manager page of our website.

Pharmacy owner checklist 

Once a pharmacy owner has decided they wish to provide the service, Community Pharmacy England’s implementation checklist will guide them through the steps they need to take to prepare to provide the service. 

Download the Pharmacy Contraception Service implementation checklist 

Consultation room

Pharmacies must have a consultation room in order to be able to offer this service, which meets the requirements in the Terms of Service.

The consultation room must also have IT equipment accessible within the room to allow contemporaneous records of the consultations provided as part of this service. 

If a pharmacy owner has had agreement from NHS England that their pharmacy is too small for a consultation room, then they are not able to provide the service solely on a remote basis. 

If the pharmacist and individual agree that the service can be carried out remotely, this should be carried out via telephone, or another live audio link or a live video link in circumstances where the conversation cannot be overheard, except by someone whom the individual wants to hear the conversation. That may, for example, mean the pharmacist uses the consultation room to undertake the remote consultation. NHS Guidance to support community pharmacy teams can help to plan for this. Further information on remote consultations can be found on our website. 

Equipment to be used in the service

In some cases, a blood pressure reading and a BMI, will need to be recorded, according to the PGD protocol. Pharmacy owners will, therefore, need to ensure that they have the necessary equipment required to undertake blood pressure readings, measure an individual’s weight and height. 

Pharmacy owners must ensure all equipment used to carry out these measurements for individuals within the pharmacy are accurate and fit for purpose in line with the GPhC standards. 

Equipment that is to be used to undertake clinic blood pressure checks in the service must be validated by the British and Irish Hypertension Society (BIHS), so pharmacy owners must use a ‘normal’ BP meter which is included on one of the two following BIHS lists: 

Validated BP Monitors for Home Use 

Validated BP Monitors for Specialist Use 

For further considerations regarding selection of blood pressure monitoring devices, please consult the ‘BP meters to be used in the service’ section of CPE Hypertension Case-Finding Service hub page. 

Equipment maintenance, calibration & cleaning 

To meet the service specification requirements, validation, maintenance and recalibration of clinic blood pressure monitors should be carried out periodically according to manufacturers’ instructions.  

Infection control measures and cleaning must be carried out in line with the instructions of the manufacturer or supplier and in line with current infection control guidance. Detergent and disinfectant wipes can damage plastic surfaces of medical devices if they are not compatible with the surface material. In line with MHRA’s guidance, pharmacy owners are advised to only use cleaning products that are compatible with the device.  

The standard operating procedure (SOP) for the service must include the processes for cleaning, maintenance, validation and recalibration of the equipment used. Pharmacy owners can access additional guidance from the MHRA’s Managing Medical Devices guide.