Reminder: Update NHS website and DoS profile
Community pharmacy contractors are reminded of the Terms of Service requirement to ensure they verify and, where necessary, update the information contained in their NHS website profile and their Directory of Services (DoS) profile at least once each quarter* of the financial year. For the current financial quarter, the deadline for completing this is 30th September 2022.
Contractor actions
- Register for the new NHS Profile Manager with your personal NHSmail address if you haven’t already. You’ll need NHSmail to use NHS Profile Manager. If NHSmail related support is required please refer to guidance at the bottom of this article.
- Check you can access NHS Profile Manager and your pharmacy profile.
- For each profile, check that your opening times, services information and contact information are up to date.
Even if no changes have been made during the financial quarter, contractors must still verify this information on using NHS Profile Manager as this creates a record which will act as evidence to NHS England that these actions have been undertaken.
How to update your profiles – NEW process
Previously, contractors used two different NHS systems to ensure their pharmacy details were up to date in the DoS Profile Updater and on the NHS website editor.
To improve information security, the NHS Profile Manager tool requires contractors and their staff to use NHSmail email accounts as login identifiers instead of non-NHSmail email addresses.
Contractors should use the new tool when making changes to DoS or NHS website pharmacy profiles. Initially, you’ll be able to use the tool to update your contact, services and hours information. Other options such as facilities will come later.
If contractors are unsure when they last updated/verified their profile, there are ‘Last updated’ dates on a pharmacy’s NHS Profile Manager for each of the sections e.g. ‘Contact details’ and ‘Opening hours’. These should all have a date listed which is between 1st July to 30th September 2022.
New video tutorials: NHS Digital has published NHS Profile Manager video tutorials on YouTube that pharmacy teams can refer to for guidance.
*Note: The financial quarters are 1st April to 30th June; 1st July to 30th September; 1st October to 31st December; and 1st January to 31st March.
Further information and support
PSNC’s NHS Profile Manager webpage includes information and new FAQs
If you need help with NHSmail, please refer to the new NHSmail FAQs factsheet / NHSmail team’s FAQs and also if required, contact pharmacyadmin@nhs.net.
For any other issues registering, please raise a ticket with the NHS website service helpdesk which operates Monday to Friday between 8am to 5pm.
Frequently asked questions
Q. How do I use NHS Profile Manager if I need to change my opening hours for the Monday 19th September 2022 (the date of the State Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II)?
If you have not already done so:
- register to use NHS Profile Manager (a personal NHSmail account is required); and then
- connect your pharmac(ies) to your personal account (note this usually takes no more than a few working days).
Once your login is setup, go to ‘Check Your Profiles’ , select your pharmacy, then go to ‘Check your opening times’, then ‘Bank Holidays’. The NHS Profile Manager team have listed Monday 19 September as a bank holiday. Use the ‘Change’ option for this day to adjust hours.
Note: You do not need to use the ‘Temporary changes’ option.
Q. How do I register for NHS Profile Manager?
Pharmacy staff will need to register on the NHS website with their personal NHSmail address (you’ll need NHSmail to use NHS Profile Manager).
Q. Can I use my pharmacy shared NHSmail email address to register for the new NHS Profile Manager?
No, you need to register with your own personal NHSmail address. You also cannot use other types of email addresses.
Q. My pharmacy will close on Christmas day this year, how do I confirm this within NHS Profile Manager?
You should mark the pharmacy as closed or enter the opening hours within the ‘temporary changes to standard hours’ section. This is because Christmas day falls on a Sunday during 2022, and therefore is not a formal ‘bank holiday’.
