HC Deb 19 January 1972 vol 829 c205W
Mr. Kinnock

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will seek to introduce legislation specifying a uniform design of notices publicising Sunday and emergency services by shops dispensing medicines under the National Health Service and requiring clear display of such notices.

Mr. Arthur Lewis

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will initiate discussions with the various authorities concerned to ensure that details of dispensing chemists who are open on Sundays and public holidays for dispensing urgent prescriptions are clearly exihibited in police station notice boards, post offices, national insurance and employment offices, town halls, local council offices, welfare departments, fire stations, hospitals and all other public buildings which are kept in being with public funds.

Mr. Alison

Regulations already require National Health Service pharmacies, when closed, to exhibit a prescribed form of notice showing the addresses and times at which other chemists in the area are required to be open outside normal hours. In addition, general practitioners normally know of the pharmacists in their areas who are willing, when available, to dispense at any time a prescription which has been marked "urgent" by a doctor, and Executive Councils have been advised to supply lists of such pharmacists to the police. I think that these measures are adequate.