Community pharmacy terms of service will be amended to make it easier for pharmacies to change their opening hours, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has said.

This 'should enable pharmacy owners to change their opening hours to days and times that better serve their patients and likely users of the pharmacy, and in some cases, close at quiet times or out-of-hours', CPE added.

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Pharmacies will still need to apply to their Integrated Care Board (ICB) to reduce their opening hours.

And the total number of core opening hours must remain the same, with a different process in place to apply to reduce opening hours.

The proposed new core opening hours must better meet the needs of patients and likely users of the pharmacy, CPE said.

And ICBs may consider contractors' evidence of the economic viability of their current opening hours, as well as patient demand for the pharmacy’s services during these hours.

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'Generally, pharmacies only receive NHS funding to provide NHS services, not just to be open, so need sufficient patient numbers during opening hours to meet the costs of opening,' CPE said.

'Exceptionally, if an ICB wants a community pharmacy to be open at quiet times, out of hours or on bank holidays and no pharmacy is available, the ICB can go through a process to direct and separately fund the pharmacy to open. This may be assisted by an out of hours opening rota agreed with local pharmacy owners,' CPE added.

The changes were agreed as part of the 2025/26 contractual framework, announced today.

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But amendments need to be made to the Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services Regulations before changes come into force.

The Pharmacy Manual will also be revised accordingly, CPE said.