LFD service: Are you providing it?

As winter approaches and cases of COVID-19 increase, pharmacy owners may want to consider provision and promotion of the COVID-19 Lateral Flow Device (LFD) service.

While this service is available throughout the year, pharmacy teams may start to see more patients asking about the availability of the service and consideration could be given to highlighting the LFD service to patients who are visiting the pharmacy for other services, such as vaccination services, to check whether they are also eligible for the LFD service.

If pharmacy owners are signed up to the service, but provision has been low over the summer months, the following actions could be considered to assist with promotion and delivery of the service:

• Re-familiarise yourself with the service specification and the FAQs on our website, as well as your standard operating procedure.
• Re-familiarise staff with the service; a pharmacy team introductory briefing sheet is available on our website.
• Ensure the team is aware of the eligible patient cohorts for the service; the eligible patient cohorts were reduced last year following an update to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance on antiviral treatment for COVID-19,  which removed some of the cohorts of patients eligible for these treatments. These changes were reflected in the LFD service; an eligible patient groups for the LFD service factsheet is available on our website.
• Review your existing stock of LFD test kits or place an order for an appropriate number of them from your usual wholesaler; remember that for this service, patients should be supplied with one box of 5 LFD tests (other pack sizes should not be supplied).
• Check NHS Profile Manager is showing that your pharmacy provides this service.
• Print out copies of any resources and paper records you will use when providing the service. Template forms and resources are  available on our LFD service webpage.
• Consider highlighting the service to patients while they are accessing other services, such as the COVID-19 Vaccination Service, if the patient is eligible for LFD tests via the LFD service. Please note, the provision of the LFD service can only be undertaken from the pharmacy premises.

For pharmacy owners, who are not signed up to provide the service, but are considering doing so, further information and resources are available on our LFD service webpage including an implementation checklist.