Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of NHS hospitals have 24 hours pharmacy dispensing for patients being discharged.

The Department and NHS England do not hold this information.  NHS England’s guidance and toolkits embed medicines planning within discharge processes and emphasise arranging discharge prescriptions and take-home medicines in advance, so they can be supplied within standard pharmacy operating hours and do not delay discharge. Implementation of this guidance is the responsibility of local National Health Service organisations.