Legislation to allow hub and spoke dispensing between different legal entities is expected to come into force in October, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has confirmed.
The relevant amendments to the Human Medicines Regulations will be effective from 1 October 2025, pending Parliament approval.
Related Article: What could Kinnock's vision for pharmacy 'reform' look like?
But given that a hub pharmacy will likely need to notify their integrated care board (ICB) 28 days in advance of commencing hub and spoke dispensing for NHS prescriptions, operations could likely begin from 29 October 2025 at the earliest, CPE said.
And it said it was discussing with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) associated amendments to the NHS (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations (PLPS regulations) that would allow NHS spoke pharmacies to subcontract part of the NHS Essential Dispensing Service to the hub.
Related Article: Government to introduce hub-to-spoke dispensing across legal entities this year
The legislative changes will:
- Allow model 1 (patient – spoke – hub – spoke – patient) hub and spoke dispensing across different legal entities,
- Require the hub and spoke pharmacies to have written arrangements that include 'a comprehensive agreement of the responsibilities each has for the shared dispensing process',
- Require dispensed medication to be labelled with the spoke’s name and address and the date on which the hub assembled or part assembled the medicine,
- Allow the hub and spoke to share patient data through an information gateway, with a notice about data confidentiality displayed to patients and staff.
The update comes as pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock laid the amendments before the House of Commons on Tuesday 29 April.
Both houses of parliament (Lords and Commons) will now need to actively approve the legislation before it can be signed into law.
Related Article: Hub and spoke changes 'likely in late 2025' but supervision legislation 'not imminent'
The last time this type of process was not approved was more than 40 years ago.
Have your say
Please add your comment in the box below. You can include links, but HTML is not permitted. Please note that comments are not moderated before publication and the views expressed are those of the user and do not reflect the views of The Pharmacist. Remember that submission of comments is governed by our Terms and Conditions. You can also read our full guidelines on article comments here – but please be aware that you are legally liable for any libellous or offensive comments that you make. If you have a complaint about a comment or are concerned that a comment breaches our terms and conditions, please use the ‘Report this comment’ function to alert our web team.