We have received a response from NHS National Services Division which we have copied and pasted in italics below for you. NHS Scotland as a whole has operated under very difficult circumstances over the past 2 years with many haemophilia teams having to absorb additional workload. Unless it is an emergency, we would recommend using the contact details below for LPCH in order to raise concerns over incorrect or delayed delivery.
Response about Lloyds Pharmacy Clinical Homecare delivery service
CURRENT POSITION
In recent months, there have been significant capacity constraints within the medicines homecare and home delivery market, and in particular at LPCH. The capacity constraints have largely been due to Covid-19 related sickness and self-isolation and recruitment and retention difficulties across the sector, specifically in customer services. This affects all homecare therapy areas, including the service for products to treat inherited bleeding disorders.Unfortunately, LPCH service issues progressively worsened throughout 2021 and persisted into 2022. NHS NSS have been meeting with LPCH regularly to understand the position, support in recovery and report back to the Health Boards in Scotland. LPCH have made improvements throughout this period, however NHS NSS recognises that there are still significant performance issues with LPCH. The current key pressure points at LPCH are within customer services, and in particular answering inbound patient phone calls. Low answer rates and high call wait times have persisted throughout February and March, and this is a focus of LPCH efforts at the moment.
ACTION BEING TAKEN TO ADDRESS THE CHALLENGES
Newly recruited customer services staff are being trained but the realisation of benefits of this will take time due to the time taken to fully train. LPCH are reallocating resource within their Glasgow site to support the inbound lines, and have remote support from staff at their English site where possible.Recruitment of additional staff is continuing with plans in place to reach target staffing levels by the end of April. A small improvement in average call wait times and % of calls answered has been evidenced last week, with stabilisation and sustained improvement in these areas being expected of LPCH in coming weeks.
CONTACTING LPCH AND RAISING A CONCERN
Patients can contact LPCH using the email address enquiries@LPclinicalhomecare.co.uk. Emails should be acknowledged within 48hours, although this response may not be a complete resolution of the enquiry.Alternatively patients can call LPCH by calling 0345 2636 135 (Monday to Friday 8.00am – 6.00pm). It is recommended to phone either in early morning or late afternoon evening to avoid busy periods.Patients are encouraged to use these routes to raise standard service level issues as long as they have a sufficient buffer stock of their products and appropriate ancillaries at home.If patients do not have sufficient buffer stock or appropriate ancillaries, they should contact their local haemophilia centres to make sure they are fully aware of the problems being experienced and to provide support. The clinical team may also be able to escalate issues with the team at LPCH and raise any official complaints with National Procurement for investigation. Deliveries of inappropriate ancillaries, insufficient labelling or similar should also be brought to the attention of the centres.
ALTERNATIVE WAY FOR THE PATIENTS TO OBTAIN MEDICINES
The clinical team will be able to provide short term support in arranging a supply of haemophilia products from the hospital until the next LPCH delivery can be arranged.NHS NSS continue to work closely with LPCH to improve service levels back to the standard expected. LPCH have been operating in Scotland for many years, and serve a large number of patients throughout Scotland. Up until recently, the standard of service provided by LPCH was very high, and the company was well regarded by the NHS.This has obviously been a very difficult year and NHS National Services Scotland will continue to work with LPCH to return to the high standard levels which patients should expect throughout Scotland.