Scottish pharmacies to get £1200 per day to open at Easter

 

The Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS) Board have agreed that for both Good Friday and Easter Monday, for each pharmacy which opens, the contractor will be paid a one-off fee to contribute towards costs incurred, as follows:

 

• Half-day opening (minimum 3 hours with services accessible to the public) = £700.
• Full-day opening (minimum 6 hours with services accessible to the public) = £1200.

 

CPS has said that full detail on how this will be paid will be communicated in due course.

 

CPS understands that some NHS Boards had set a noon deadline for volunteers to come forward to open on these days. We have asked them to extend this based on this new information only just becoming available.

 

CPS has advised that if contractors intend to open on either or both of these days, please get in touch with your Health Board community pharmacy team to let them know the hours you will be available to the public. If you have already done this, there is no need to get back in touch with them.

 

CPS Director of Operations Matt Barclay commented:

 

“Any pharmacy that decided to open a full day will be paid £1200 and any pharmacy that opens for half a day will be paid £700. That’s regardless of whether you are planning to or not.

 

“This is not an obligation but instead an ask from Jeanne Freeman. We realise that many of the teams are exhausted and burnt out but if there is any way at all that some of you where it is safe to do so could possibly open then that money will be there for you to access alongside April payments.”

 

We encourage you to watch the full update from the first remotely organised CPS board meeting on the Community Pharmacy Scotland YouTube channel below.