Community pharmacies in England will be able to sign up to provide a new Covid-19 lateral flow device supply service from November 6, NHS BSA has said.

In a limited version of the Pharmacy Collect service that ran during the pandemic, participating pharmacies will be paid £4 plus VAT every time they supply a box of five test kits to eligible patients.

After signing up to the service on the NHS BSA's MYS portal, they will be able to provide it, with kit tests to be reimbursed via the drug tariff using money over and above the global sum. 

While only a draft service specification has been published so far, NHS BSA has indicated that eligibility criteria will follow NICE guidelines on patients who are at risk of progressing to severe Covid-19 if infected, such as adults with Down’s syndrome or cancer patients. These patients will be able to access Covid-19 treatments if they test positive.

CPE services director Alastair Buxton said: “This is not going to be a high volume service, but community pharmacies are well placed to provide LFD test kits to eligible patients with them having made over 25.5 million supplies of Covid-19 LFD test kits in 2021-22. 

“The service is similar to the previous LFD Pharmacy Collect service, so with the resources we will provide for pharmacy owners we expect it will be straightforward for pharmacy teams to get up and running with the service if the pharmacy owner chooses to provide it.

“At a time when we are seeing Covid-19 cases start to increase, this service along with the Covid-19 vaccination service demonstrates yet again what a key part of the NHS community pharmacies are.”