Communicating with patients

Published on: 1st October 2014 | Updated on: 17th October 2023

Community Pharmacy England often creates resources that community pharmacy teams, LPCs and others can give to patients and the public to provide more information about community pharmacy and its services. Here we have brought together all of these resources in one place.

General information about community pharmacy

CPCF summary for external stakeholders (2019)
A summary of the five-year Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) created to explain it for external audiences. These may be particularly useful for LPCs engaging with local healthcare organisations or other stakeholders.

Community pharmacy presentation (2019)
A PowerPoint about community pharmacy reflecting changes to the CPCF.

Think Pharmacy posters
A collection of posters that can be printed off and used to promote both local and national pharmacy services to patients.

Local pharmacy campaigns (LPC Members Area login required)
LPCs will sometimes wish to run campaigns promoting the use of local pharmacies. This page contains some resources created as part of previous local campaigns which may provide inspiration or materials for others.

Sliding doors: your patient’s journey (an infographic)
Healthcare consumables supplier Valley Northern has created an infographic detailing how the general public can turn to their local pharmacy for minor illness advice and alleviate pressure on the NHS.

The Pharmacy Song
Aimed at patients explaining what pharmacy does. Created by The Sound Doctor.

Dispensing prescriptions

The Prescription Charge Card
This poster is designed for display in public areas of pharmacies to inform patients of the current NHS prescription charge. Also on this page are Community Pharmacy England’s Free-of-charge and Multi-Charge factsheets.

EPS patient information leaflet
This explains how the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) works.

Electronic Repeat Dispensing (eRD)
The following poster and patient leaflet have been developed by Community Pharmacy England to be consistent with the repeat dispensing contractual requirements which have a particular focus on eRD:

Patient materials from the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) include:  an animation, a letter, a flyer, a poster and direct contact templates (emailtext message, and social media).

Pharmacies can order copies of a flyer via Primary Care Support England (PCSE).

Other pharmacy services

Flu Vaccination Service – promoting the service
Various resources have been created to help community pharmacy teams promote the Flu Vaccination Service by making patients aware they can have their NHS flu jab at their local pharmacy. We have also provided information and resources to help LPCs with communications and marketing for the service.

Creating your own patient communication materials

NHS Identity Guidelines: NHS logo use by pharmacies
If you choose to use the NHS identity (i.e. the NHS logo) on your marketing materials, please ensure that this guidance is adhered to when producing, updating or replacing designs.

Accessible communication formats
The Department for Work & Pensions and the Office for Disability Issues have issued guidance on Accessible communication formats. The guidance contains a section on ‘accessible print publications’ which offers best practice guidance on font size, design, layout, etc for printing publications. This may also be useful for contractors when looking to amend downloadable documents from the Community Pharmacy England website or when creating new documents for patients.

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