Directory of Services (DoS)
Published on: 26th January 2017 | Updated on: 17th December 2023
The Directory of Services (DoS) is a central directory of information, maintained by NHS England, which provides NHS 111 call handlers and others with real-time information about services available to support patients.
Pharmacies’ services and opening hours are included within the DoS and it is important to the efficient working of NHS 111 and some other urgent care providers that information on pharmacy services is accurate to allow patients to be appropriately referred to community pharmacies, such as for the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service.
DoS is not publicly available, as it contains some private information, such as telephone numbers for use only by healthcare professionals, but pharmacy teams can access DoS via various web-based systems.
Click on a heading below for more information
Pharmacy owners can check or amend the information in their DoS profile through the NHS Profile Manager (a new tool which replaced the Directory of Services (DoS) Profile Updater during June 2022).
From 9th November 2020, under the NHS Terms of Service, pharmacy owners must ensure that the DoS profile for their pharmacy is comprehensive and accurate. Additionally pharmacy owners must verify and, where necessary, update the information contained within the pharmacy profile at least once each quarter of the financial year.
The NHS financial quarters are 1st April to 30th June, 1st July to 30th September, 1st October to 31st December and 1st January to 31st March.
Amending or verifying a pharmacy profile creates a record in the NHS Profile Manager which will act as evidence to NHS England that these actions have been undertaken. NHS England will use the report for contract management purposes each quarter.
Use of NHS Profile Manager
The NHS Profile Manager requires pharmacy owners to use their personal NHSmail account to allow user validation to support security of the tool.
Pharmacies are profiled on the DoS using a series of different profiles; the number of these profiles varies, depending on where in the country the pharmacy is located and which services are provided. For example, the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) is known by the following service names on DoS to reflect the two stands of the service (urgent medicine supply and minor illness):
| Pharm+ | Standard pharmacy service provision plus urgent medicine supply |
| CPCS | Minor illness provision with 24-hour or longer referral time-frame |
| CPCS+ | Minor illness provision with 12-hour referral time-frame |
| CPCS++ | Minor illness provision with 6-hour referral time-frame |
Once logged in to the NHS Profile Manager, you should search by ODS code or postcode to ensure all of their service profiles are included on the DoS.
Once the pharmacy details on the NHS Profile Manager have been submitted, you will receive an email confirming submission. This should be instantaneous, however, please allow up to two hours for the emails to be delivered. If the emails are not received, please check junk mail first before emailing the NHS website helpdesk with ‘NHS Profile Manager usage’ in the subject line of the email to confirm that the submission has been received.
We recommend retaining these confirmation emails as evidence of meeting this Term of Service requirement.
The informationsubmitted into the NHS Profile Manager will be automatically reflected in the DoS approximately 10 minutes after the change has been submitted. The changes will not, however, be reflected back on the NHS Profile Manager until the following day, because it has a nightly data feed from DoS. Where DoS leads or NHS England have queries regarding the information provided, they will contact the pharmacy to resolve the query. Where the changes can be accepted without reference back to the pharmacy, no follow up contact will be made.
If you have any technical difficulties accessing the NHS Profile Manager, they can email the helpdesk (exeter.helpdesk@nhs.net).
Enhancements
NHS England continue to explore enhancements and incorporate feedback from Community Pharmacy England, pharmacy owners and others.
If you wish to request other enhancements are added onto the NHS Profile Manager wishlist, you may contact: it@cpe.org.uk.
Read more: Community Pharmacy England’s NHS Profile Manager webpage.
Pharmacy profiles for Distance Selling Pharmacies (DSPs)
Distance Selling Pharmacies’ profiles differ from brick and mortar pharmacy profile listings.
DSPs can contact DoS leads in the event that changes are required which cannot yet be entered via NHS Profile Manager. See ‘DoS oversight’ section of this webpage to find out how to identify and contact your local DoS lead.
See more at the DSP section of Keeping pharmacy profile information up-to-date.
The Directory of Services (DoS) Profile Updater was replaced by NHS Profile Manager in 2022.
The opening hours included in a pharmacy’s DoS profile must be those agreed with NHS England, i.e. the core and supplementary opening hours. Pharmacy owners must update their DoS profile where the pharmacy’s opening hours change, either temporarily or permanently. This is to avoid patients being inappropriately referred to the pharmacy while it is closed.
For temporary closures of more than five days, you can amend their opening times within the NHS Profile Manager.
If you have login credentials for the DoS Capacity Status Tool, for temporary closures of less than five days, they can amend their Red Amber Green (RAG) status to ‘RED’ in the status tool (local DoS leads will be able to advise on login credentials for the DoS Capacity Status Tool). If you do not have access to the tool, they can instead use the NHS Profile Manager to make the change.
Alternatively, the DoS emergency change number (0300 0200 363) may be used where necessary, or you can contact your local DoS lead.
Pharmacy owners are required to include in their DoS profile their opening hours on Bank Holidays, Christmas Day, Good Friday and Easter Sunday; this must be the same as the information provided on the pharmacy’s NHS website profile. Please note that making changes by using the NHS Profile Manager should also make changes to NHS website.
NHS Service Finder is a free online search tool that uses information from within DoS and NHS website. NHS Service Finder:
- Allows pharmacy team members and other healthcare professionals to search for DoS information quickly, allowing a patient to be signposted to the most appropriate service for their needs;
- Provides access to information from the Urgent and Emergency Care Directory of Services and the NHS website. This includes non-public telephone numbers (where available) and information about who is eligible for the service and how to refer a patient; and
- Includes maps and directions to the services, plus the ability to email service information directly to your patient.
NHS England and NHS Improvement National DoS Team
The DoS Team alongside other NHS England teams help to set the policy relating to the use of DoS information and related tools.
NHS England
NHS England’s Transformation Directorate are involved with helping to manage the IT aspects of DoS and including the NHS Profile Manager and NHS Service Finder tools.
Local DoS teams
Local DoS teams help to manage and maintain local DoS information.
A list of local contact details is available to users of NHS Service Finder (available for health care staff such as pharmacy teams members and LPC members): List of local DoS team contact info (login required). At present NHS Profile Manager does not enable the email address to be corrected if the wrong one is listed. However, you ought to be able to update DoS information without needing to directly contact the local DoS team (see ‘NHS Profile Manager‘ section). In some cases Local Pharmaceutical Committees (LPCs) may work with local DoS teams in relation to relevant pharmacy queries about local DoS information.
If you have queries on this webpage or you require more information please contact it@cpe.org.uk.
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For more information on this topic please email it@cpe.org.uk
