Community pharmacies are being inundated with requests for medicine deliveries regardless of whether patients are in the ‘shielding’ demographic, a new survey shows.
The Pharmacy Magazine survey of 232 pharmacists, which ran over the weekend of April 18-19, found that the average pharmacy has seen a 65% spike in requests for deliveries since Covid-19 lockdown measures were first introduced, with requests more than doubling for some. Pharmacists reported an average of 40 requests a day, rising to 47 for independent pharmacies.
According to PSNC, an average pharmacy can expect to have 120 shielded patients. Just 31 per cent said they had begun using the Government’s new pandemic delivery service for shielded patients in England, which launched on Good Friday.
