Community Pharmacy Devon Weekly Dose 💊

Thursday 17th September 2026

Welcome to your weekly injection of local and national pharmacy news. As always, if you have any feedback or comments, please contact us by email at admin@cpdevon.org.uk.

EHC and Contraception Service

University students are heading back to university over the next two weeks, some in the area for the first time. We have already seen demand for pharmacy services increase considerably and work has been completed with these sites to support service growth and signposting into your pharmacies.

Please ensure you have enough stock in your pharmacy, particularly for services like EHC and contraception, as there is usually higher demand throughout September and October.

If you have any questions please reach out to the LPC office or your local PCN lead.

Help Increase Chlamydia Screening Across Devon and Torbay

Pharmacy teams are encouraged to promote free chlamydia self-test kits to women and other people with a womb or ovaries under 25. Please offer test kits, or signpost to testing, during EHC consultations, contraception discussions, etc.

Chlamydia often has no symptoms, so easier access to testing may help prevent complications from untreated infections and reduce onward transmission.

For more information and how to order testing kits, please see here.

Devon Needle and Syringe Service Providers From Devon County Council

We wish to thank you for continuing to provide this vital Public Health harm reduction service to people who use drugs in Devon as it contributes to the prevention of blood borne viruses and can act as an engagement tool to encourage people into treatment.

Public Health has received several reports of individuals discarding their waste in community settings and inappropriately on the floor which risks public safety and is causing significant frustrations amongst the Business sector and Community Safety Teams.

Therefore, we request all NSP providers politely remind people using the NSP service to dispose of their waste in any of the following ways:

Returning it to a Community Pharmacy, Together Drug and Alcohol treatment services, STaR drug and alcohol treatment services (Exeter only) or Gabriel House (Exeter only)

We also ask that all providers ask their NSP customers how easy they find disposal of their waste and what improvements could be made and to report these insights to us using this survey throughout September and October 2026.

Getting Ready for Community Pharmacy Prescribing; Overview of IT Requirements

NHS England is hosting a webinar to provide an overview of available prescribing IT solutions and to support pharmacies in preparing for future prescribing services.

Thursday 1 October 2026 6:30pm – 7:30pm

https://www.events.england.nhs.uk/events/getting-ready-for-prescribing-it-options

We would encourage all contractors who are planning for, or considering, prescribing activity within their pharmacy to attend.

Devon Guiding Principles - Use of Monitored Dosage Systems (MDS)

The Devon Guiding Principles for the Use of Monitored Dosage Systems (MDS) has been reviewed and updated and is now available on the OneDevon website here.

The guidance aims to support health and social care professionals involved in the prescribing, dispensing, and the administering of medicines to patients who may need a reasonable adjustment under the Equality act 2010 to take their medicines.