Coronavirus Updates → Central Pharmacy Updates

We'd like to thank all of our patients and our community for their continued support of community pharmacy during these difficult times, in addition to our staff team who are working hard day-in, day-out, to ensure your continued access to medicines.

Please view our updates and guidance for Central Pharmacy in regards to COVID-19 below. You can also review our General Coronavirus Guidance for further information on your health and wellbeing, and what we're doing to help combat the virus.

Important — please allow sufficient time for your prescription to be prepared. We should be given two working days (48 hours) to do so; if you have ordered your prescription today it will not be ready. Please see more below under 'Ordering and Accessing your Medication'. 

• Please do not attend any pharmacy or GP surgery if displaying any of the main symptoms of Coronavirus (COVID-19). These symptoms include:

• • A new, continuous cough
  • A fever or high temperature
  • Anosmia (the loss of sense of smell or taste)

Instead, you must stay at home, along with any others residing in your household. Please find further information on self-isolation here. If you require access to medication from your pharmacy during this time, then please see below under the title 'Accessing Medication for those at risk or isolating'.

• Face coverings are now mandatory for those attending our pharmacies. Protect yourself and others, and wear a mask. For full rules and exceptions, click here.
  

• Social distancing is in force at all of our pharmacy sites, for the safety of our patients and staff.

• • Please see more about this under our 'social distancing measures' header.

We continue to serve our patients and community with our usual opening times. You can find further information on our opening times and our pharmacy services on our main page.

View our opening times →

We've put social distancing measures in place within the pharmacy building to ensure the safety of our staff and patients. These include:

• Please maintain a two metre distance from others at all times when attending our pharmacy.

• Our customers are asked to pay with contactless card payments wherever possible if payment is necessary.

• Our main entrance and entrance to the surgery is closed. All pharmacy patients must use our external door to access the pharmacy.

• • Only one person is permitted within our external access area at a time. Others will be politely asked to queue along the side of the building outside, maintaining a two metre social distance with others.
  • You will likely be asked to wait outside of the building if you choose to wait for a prescription to be prepared. This is so we can serve other customers whilst we prepare your prescription.
  • We will serve our patients and customers through the external access window to our pharmacy. We appreciate your understanding and apologise for any delays to you obtaining your medicines through this system, which is in place to aid social distancing.

• Please do not be alarmed if our staff members are wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) — this is for collective safety to prevent the transmission of disease.

• Signing for your prescriptions or controlled drugs is not necessary during the pandemic to prevent further transmission or spread of the disease.

The Lintonville Medical Group site is being used by Valens Medical Partnership to administer coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccinations.

We are therefore currently unable to provide a waiting area or indoor accommodation for those attending the pharmacy, unless you need to make use of a consulting room. Please remember to queue outside the pharmacy along the parallel wall, waiting to be served at the pharmacy hatch. Please do not enter the surgery, unless attending for a medical appointment or a COVID-19 immunisation, as directed by your GP.

We are currently experiencing high demands on our services, especially for prescription dispensing. Please find below advice on how to best order and access your repeat medication, and information on how we continue to work on preparing your prescriptions in good time.

Ordering Repeat Medication:

Please order your repeat prescriptions within plenty of time of them being required, to ensure we can prepare your prescriptions and have them ready for you in good time. This allows for more time for your GP Surgery and our pharmacy to prepare your medication, and for us to avoid delays to you on being able to access your medicines.

Ordering repeat prescriptions should where possible be done through telephone or online with your General Practice, to avoid person-to-person contact. Some GP surgeries have stopped allowing repeat prescriptions to be ordered in person or through paper slips. Please visit our guidance page on how to order repeat medication for further advice on this. You may order your prescription up to seven days before it is due to run out — this will give us extra time to prepare it.

Please note that sometimes you may have to discuss the use of your medicines with your General Practitioner before they issue further repeat prescriptions.

Please note that most General Practices take up to 48 hours to send your repeat prescriptions to us, from when they've been ordered. Therefore we request 72 to 96 hours to receive and prepare your repeat prescriptions from when you have ordered them. Thank you for your patience and understanding on this matter.

Preparing your Prescriptions:

We'd like to thank our patients for their continued patience with us when preparing their prescriptions. 

It usually takes us 24 hours to prepare and make ready your prescription from when we have received it from your General Practice. We would, however, like to request wherever possible that patients give us 48 hours to prepare their prescriptions, to ensure stock can be acquired and to allow our services to operate as efficiently as possible. If you require your medicines more urgently than this, then please let us know and we should be able to fulfill your request.

Many pharmacies nationwide continue to suffer manufacturer supply issues with a small minority of medicines. If these issues affect you, we will promptly inform you of the issue and work with you and your GP on finding a suitable alternative or sourcing extra stock to help ensure continued access to treatment.

Accessing your Medicines when they're ready:

We're open as usual for prescription collection.

As noted above, our pharmacy remains open with our usual opening times for you to collect your prescriptions or other medication, or to receive other pharmacy services where possible.

For those self-isolating or shielding:

We're conscious that many of our patients may be self-isolating with coronavirus symptoms, or shielding themselves on advice of their doctors and the NHS from COVID-19. Please consult our title below 'Accessing medication for those at risk or isolating' for further information on what we can do for you.

We've been working hard to ensure every single one of our patients can continue to access their medication without putting themselves at great risk. Find out further information on how we can get your medication to you if you're self-isolating or shielding.

If you cannot collect your medication yourself:

If you are unable to attend the pharmacy in person, then a friend or family member can come and collect your prescription on your behalf, so long as they are able to relay the following information:

• Your full name
• Your full address

If nobody is available to collect your medication for you:

If nobody else is available to collect your medication for you, and you are self-isolating and shielding and cannot leave your household, then please call us (01670 856633), or email us at ashington@wellwaycentral.co.uk. We will then be able to refer you to the appropriate support services, such as volunteers who will collect and deliver your prescription for you, or provide extra delivery capacity to accomodate you in these challenging times.

All essential pharmacy services are continuing to function, in order to prioritise and look after your health and wellbeing. Some other services such as our New Medicines Service are also continuing via telephone meetings, to aid social distancing.

The provision of all face-to-face appointments and services will either be subject to social distancing measures or moved to telephone calls or continued through other means, or will be postponed until further notice. Please contact us regarding any specific services.

We will inform you of any changes to our services that may affect you in good time. If you have any questions or queries at any time, don't hesitate to contact us.

We continue to update our website with the latest guidance and updates on our pharmacy operations in light of the ongoing pandemic.

Our latest updates are posted to the top of our general coronavirus webpage.

We remain contactable through any usual methods to respond to any questions you may have. You can find the best ways to contact us here.