Changing Core Opening Hours

Pharmacy owners who want to change their core contractual hours (core opening hours) must apply to the ICB.

Pharmacy owners have no right to change core opening hours, but must apply for any changes. This is not a notification procedure. Consequently, applications to change core opening hours may be granted or refused. An ICB is required to consider and determine applications within 60 days, and any changes, if approved, may be implemented only after 30 days (from the date of approval).

In June 2025, Regulations were laid which introduced an additional application route for amending core opening hours. Both routes are explained below, and pharmacy owners wishing to amend core opening hours must specify which application route they are applying under.

Existing application route

The existing application route is defined in para 24(1) of Schedule 4 of the PLPS regulations, which applies to applications to reduce the total number of core opening hours, or to rearrange the existing number.

This route is a 2-part regulatory test, which is:

• First, whether the proposed changes to core opening hours maintain as necessary the existing level of service provision and, if not,
• Second, whether they will maintain a sustainable level of adequate provision in circumstances where this is unnecessary or unrealistically achievable.

This application route considers the needs of people in the area, and the opening hours and provision of pharmacy services by the applicant’s pharmacy and other pharmacies in the area.

New application route

The new application route is defined in para 26(2ZB) of Schedule 4 of the PLPS regulations, which applies to applications to rearrange the existing number of core opening hours (the total number  of weekly hours must remain the same).

This route has a single regulatory test, which states that NHSE (in practice, the ICB) must:
‘… seek to ensure that the people who are accustomed to accessing pharmaceutical services at the pharmacy premises are likely to benefit from the changes because, overall, they would be more likely to access those services at those premises during the proposed core opening hours than during the existing core opening hours.’

This application route considers the needs of people who are accustomed to accessing pharmacy services at the applicant’s pharmacy, and the opening hours and provision of pharmacy services by the applicant’s pharmacy.

For an application under the new application route to be granted, people accustomed to using the pharmacy must be likely to benefit from the changes because, overall, they are more likely to access pharmacy services at the premises during the proposed hours than during the existing hours. An application could be about moving a set number of core hours or a broader change to core opening hours.

As part of the national negotiations, it was agreed that for both new and existing applications, ICBs would be required to take into consideration the business needs of the pharmacy, as part of the decision-making process on opening hours applications, where these have been cited by the applicant pharmacy owner.

The Pharmacy Manual (Chapter 36) will be amended to reflect these changes, and in the meantime, NHS England has confirmed, from 23 June, ICBs should apply this.

What to include with applications

With both the new and existing application routes, pharmacy owner applicants will need to:

• Specify which application route applies, otherwise, the application will be invalid.
• Provide the ICB with such information as may reasonably be requested (i.e., provide all relevant information when the application is made).
• Consider what evidence is relevant to their application, and depending on the application route, this could include, for example:
  • Any changes to local GP practice hours and the opening hours of nearby pharmacies.
  • Information about the demand for and use of the pharmacy’s services – patient surveys, levels of use – for prescriptions/requests for advice/OTC medicines sales – for the relevant days/times. (e.g. the proposed core opening hours and the existing core opening hours and other relevant hours – if Saturday afternoon is quiet with few patients, as well as showing another time in the week better meets the needs of patients, you may need to show that some of the small number of patients in the afternoon could have come in the morning).
  • The distance from the applicant’s pharmacy to nearby pharmacies, including any 100 (72) – hour pharmacies, or other pharmacies, their opening days and times, the services they offer, and how patients can travel to them.
  • Evidence of the economic viability of the current opening hours, which can be considered alongside evidence of patient demand for the pharmacy’s services during these hours (the Pharmacy Manual will be amended to state this or something similar).
  • Other evidence relevant to the regulatory test.

Appeal cases (which can be found on the Primary Care Appeals decisions website) for the existing application route identify key evidence as the distance from the pharmacy to nearby pharmacies, how patients could travel to them, the opening hours of them and the services those pharmacies offer. Applications could also include survey data, for the hours change applied for, to show how patients are traveling to the pharmacy and the reason for their visit (e.g. dispensing services).

Providing evidence to show that maintaining the existing level of provision is not realistically achievable is more problematic for applicants with the appeals decisions noting ‘this sets a fairly high bar as to the level of difficultly that the Applicant must find themselves in’. Therefore if an application is relying on this provision they must show sufficient evidence to indicate that the economic and practical viability of the current opening hours has been compromised.

There template application forms for changing core opening hours:

• Application form to reduce core opening hours (existing application route)
• Application form to redistribute core opening hours (existing and new application routes)

Applicants must specify which application route the application relies on, if it is an application to redistribute core opening hours. The relevant application form must be submitted to ICBs, ICB email address can be found on the pharmacy contract teams’ web page.

If an application is not granted the applicant has the right of appeal and must be made to an officer or employee of the NHS Litigation Service or a committee established in accordance with the Directions to the Primary Care Appeals Service. The Primary Care Appeals service, may confirm the decision of the ICB or set aside the decision and grant the application.

If an application is successful, the pharmacy may change the core opening hours but not earlier than 30 days after the approval has been received. Pharmacy owners will also need to update their opening hours on their NHS website profile and Directory of Services (DoS) profile using the NHS Profile Manager tool, to reflect the revised opening hours.

For more information on this topic please email comms.team@cpe.org.uk