12 April 2019

Brexit ‘On Deal’ preparations continue – no change to advice for primary eye care

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) continue contingency planning for the event of a No deal Brexit and have issued updated advice.

The advice outlines what has been done nationally to assess the potential risks to primary care and gives direction on the actions that contractors delivering primary care still need to take locally. It is important for everyone working in primary care to understand the actions that are needed.  For community optical practices there is no change.

• Primary care contractors do not need to change their behaviour in terms of ordering stocks or engaging with suppliers, as this work has been undertaken nationally. This means contractors should not stockpile medicines, medical devices or clinical consumables and should advise patients not to do so either.

• For medical devices and clinical consumables that your practice or pharmacy orders directly from companies based in the EU on a short buy clonazepam 2 mg online lead time basis (i.e. 24 to 72 hours), you should plan for lead times of around three days longer on these items only. Please note that this advice does not apply to medicines and does not apply to products ordered via a wholesaler.

• Primary care contractors will not be asked to take part in the daily situation reporting that NHS England and NHS Improvement will be undertaking. However, we do ask that any issues or concerns are escalated as appropriate, details of whom to escalate to below and are also at the end of the updated guidance.

Providers who fear a supply shortage of essential medicines and medical devices to contact the National Supply Disruption Response (NSDR) centre using the following contacts:

Free Phone in the UK: 0800 915 9964
Direct Line: 0044 (0) 191 283 6543
Email: [email protected]