Consultation outcome

Hub and spoke dispensing

From:: Department of Health and Social Care
Published: 16 March 2022
Last updated: 13 May 2024 — See all updates

Read the full outcome

Government response to the consultation on hub and spoke dispensing

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Detail of outcome

The government conducted a UK-wide consultation from 16 March to 8 June 2022 seeking views on proposals for amending the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 (HMRs) and the Medicines Act 1968 to remove the barrier that currently limits hub and spoke models to pharmacies within the same legal entity, and to ensure the safe and effective implementation of the policy.

This is the formal government response to that consultation.

The consultation evidence and further discussions have enabled us to understand concerns and queries in detail. The report analyses 131 replies and responds to feedback received during the consultation period.

Given the level of support for this proposal, the government will progress with legislation to amend the Medicines Act 1968 and the HMRs 2012.

Our intention is that, subject to approval of the statutory instrument by the Houses of Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly, the proposed legislative amendments will come into force on 1 January 2025, to tie in with the commencement of the Windsor Framework and to allow sufficient time for secondary legislation to be amended, as appropriate. This also gives the pharmacy sector time to explore the relevance of the new hub and spoke models to their businesses.

Original consultation

Consultation description

As part of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) 5-year deal (2019 to 2024), the government committed to pursuing legislative change to enable all community pharmacies to benefit from ‘hub and spoke’ dispensing models, with the intention of supporting efficiencies for pharmacies and freeing up pharmacists and their teams for other tasks such as providing clinical services to patients.

Hub and spoke dispensing is where parts of the dispensing process are undertaken in separate pharmacy premises. Typically, there are many ‘spoke’ pharmacies to one ‘hub’ pharmacy. The concept is that the simple, routine aspects of assembling prescriptions can take place on a large scale in a ‘hub’ that usually makes use of automated processes. This means that pharmacists and other staff in the ‘spokes’ are freed up to provide more direct patient care. Currently it is only possible when the hub pharmacy forms part of the same retail business as the spoke pharmacy.

This consultation seeks views and comments on proposals which will make changes to legislation to facilitate the use of hub and spoke dispensing between pharmacies of different legal entities. It includes proposals on 2 different models of hub and spoke dispensing:

model 1, where the medicines are returned assembled from the hub to the spoke pharmacy before supply to the patient
model 2, where the hub pharmacy supplies medicines directly to the patient

We are also proposing to enable dispensing doctors (GPs who also dispense medicines and who generally serve remote or rural areas) to access hub pharmacies.

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