New smartcard positions and ‘FFFFF’+SCR codes for community pharmacy
NHS England have created 5 national standards of smartcard positions for community pharmacy and extended the ‘FFFFF’+SCR renewal by 3 years.
Background
NHS England previously added the multi-site ‘FFFFF’ smartcard code and Summary Care Record (SCR) rights onto smartcards with the pharmacist or pharmacy technician role, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative was supported by Community Pharmacy England.
Following positive feedback from the sector about the clinical value of this, and an increasingly mobile pharmacy workforce that has been required to work across more pharmacies, NHS England has extended these access rights for users for another 3 years.
As part of the process for extending COVID-19 position access periods, NHS England has also renamed the positions to National Qualified Pharmacist (Multi-Site)/National Qualified Pharmacy Technician (Multi-Site) and created a total of 5 new baseline community pharmacy positions (intended for existing and future pharmacy team members).
The positions all include access to the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) and SCR (via the National Care Records Service).
The reason why the new positions have been created is to allow qualified/trainee pharmacists/technicians access to EPS and SCR, so that they can begin working immediately with access to national services.
New community pharmacy positions
| Position name | Notes |
|---|---|
| National Qualified Pharmacist (Multi-Site) | For qualified pharmacists working within community pharmacy to allow access of relevant health records. |
|
National Trainee Pharmacist (Multi-site) |
For pre-registration pharmacists in community pharmacy. Position must be time limited and updated to National Qualified Pharmacist (Multi-Site) after training is completed. |
| National Qualified Pharmacy Technician (Multi-Site) | For qualified pharmacy technicians working within community pharmacy to allow access of relevant health records. |
| National Trainee Pharmacy Technician (Multi-site) |
For trainee pharmacy technicians working within community pharmacy to allow access of relevant health records. Position must be time limited and updated to National Qualified Pharmacy Technician (Multi-Site) after training is completed. |
| National Pharmacy Team Member (Qualified or Trainee) (Multi-Site) |
For dispensers and counter assistants working in community pharmacy. Pharmacy professionals on the GPhC register should be assigned to National Qualified Pharmacy Professional (Multi-Site). |
It is the responsibility of the registration authority (RA) to decide on the length of the position assignment applied to a user’s profile. The length should be up to a maximum of 3 years.
There is no longer a mandatory requirement for users to have completed the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE) SCR training. However, this training remains part of the curriculum and is something all pharmacists can consider completing. RAs therefore do not need to check whether this module has been completed.
Trainee positions are authenticated via BAU sponsor approval ONLY as an INTERIM solution in the absence of a trainee GPhC Register.
NHS England is working to provide this information to the Registration Authorities by either: granting Registration Authorities access to GPhC’s “Subscription Service” or by onward sharing of the relevant information via an updated information sharing agreement with GPhC.
Registration authorities only need to use the new positions for new requests.
For community pharmacy users
If you actively use the ‘FFFFF/SCR’ smartcard position role, your position end date will be extended by 3 years before 31 January 2024. The position name will then be migrated to one of the new baseline positions above before March 2024.
The NHS Care Identity Service team may perform hygiene activities from time to time. These may result in the removal of the 5F from smartcards which have not recently required login with the multi-site 5F code. Such hygiene activities will not affect any other positions you might have on your profile/smartcard. If 5F code is removed, and you require this again (for example, you may need to work at another pharmacy site at short notice), you must contact your local RA.
To get one of the new baseline positions added to your smartcard, you will also need to contact your local RA.
Last edited: 1 July 2024 3:06 pm