Special Services
Some other services are specially commissioned and are not available at every pharmacy.
This section of our website aims to describe some these services and help you find out which pharmacies offer them. You can check whether your local pharmacy offers these services by looking on their NHS choices page web listing, which is accessible via the pin on the Lincolnshire pharmacy map here or by searching on the online NHS nationwide find a pharmacy tool here. Alternatively you can look for a pharmacy offering some specific services using the links here.
Supervised Consumption
The service includes the provision of self-administration of Methadone and Buprenorphine within the pharmacy under supervision. This observed consumption guarantees the safe administration of treatment in line with the prescribers directions.
Frequent contact between pharmacist and patient following on from supervised consumption means that pharmacists are well placed to monitor patient health and give appropriate advice. This may take the form of promoting safer drug use practices and providing information on harm reduction strategies. Pharmacy teams complement existing drug and alcohol services by referring patients to other agencies where further support services are available.
In addition to providing appropriate support and advice to substance misusers, trained pharmacy teams can communicate any non-attendance or other non-adherence to the treatment programme to the appropriate care coordinator. Action can then be taken if there are concerns about the patient’s mental, physical or emotional health when visiting the pharmacy.
Needle and Syringe Programme
A small number of Pharmacists and their teams can provide a needle and syringe programme which ensures that injecting drug services 24users have the opportunity to exchange used needles for new ones and receive safer injection information. Pharmacy teams are used to handling matters of a delicate nature and so can provide a discreet and non-judgemental service.
Needle exchange services help reduce the transmission of blood borne viruses and other infections caused by sharing injecting equipment, including HIV, hepatitis B and C.
The patient will have access to sterile needles, syringes, injecting paraphernalia, harm reduction advice and the pharmacy team will be able to signpost to other relevant health & social agencies. This will help service users to remain healthy until they are ready, able and willing to cease injecting and ultimately achieve a drug-free life with appropriate support.
The pharmacy will encourage 100% returns & facilitate the safe disposal of used equipment. However non-returns should not impact on the provision of equipment unless the service user continues to make poor returns. The pharmacist will provide at least one sharps bin with every transaction.
Information on drug and alcohol related issues can also be found on the FRANK website here.