How to Nominate a Pharmacy in the NHS App (and Why It Matters)

Nominating a pharmacy takes about a minute in the NHS App, and it decides where every repeat prescription you order ends up. Done well, it means your medicines are bagged and waiting before you walk in. Done badly, or never done at all, it means chasing paper slips, queueing while stock is ordered, or discovering your tablets have been sent to a pharmacy on the other side of Medway.

I have lost count of how many times I have sorted a nomination problem at our counter in Gillingham that had been quietly costing someone a wasted trip every month. So here is the full picture: what nomination actually is, the exact steps in the app, and the handful of things that go wrong.

What does nominating a pharmacy actually mean?

Nomination, which the NHS App now calls choosing a pharmacy, tells the NHS to send your prescriptions electronically to one named pharmacy. Once you have chosen a pharmacy, you no longer need to collect paper prescriptions from your GP surgery, and your chosen pharmacy keeps receiving your prescriptions until you change or remove the nomination. The pharmacy can prepare your medicines as soon as the prescription arrives, and many, including ours, can deliver to your home.

Nomination works hand in hand with ordering repeat prescriptions, which you can do in the same part of the app. The NHS advises requesting your repeat up to 5 working days before you need the medicine. Order in the app, and the prescription flows straight to your chosen pharmacy without you touching a piece of paper.

How do you nominate a pharmacy in the NHS App?

The steps take less time than reading this section:

1. Log in to the NHS App and select Prescriptions.
2. Check what is already set. If you already have a chosen pharmacy, its name appears under Your chosen pharmacy. If not, you will see Choose a pharmacy.
3. Select Choose a pharmacy and follow the instructions to search for and confirm the pharmacy you want.

No smartphone? You can do the same thing by logging in to the NHS website in a browser, or simply ask at your GP surgery or at the pharmacy counter. If you come into us, we can set the nomination on our system while you wait, with your permission. It takes under a minute and you do not need to touch the app at all.

How do you change your nominated pharmacy?

In the app: select Prescriptions, then Your chosen pharmacy, then Change your chosen pharmacy, and follow the instructions. The change applies to prescriptions issued after the switch.

One caution from the NHS guidance that I see bite people regularly: if you change your chosen pharmacy, any outstanding prescriptions you have already requested may still arrive at your old pharmacy. Collect anything pending before you switch, or let both pharmacies know so the prescription can be tracked down rather than sitting uncollected.

You also cannot remove a nomination entirely from within the app. If you want no chosen pharmacy at all, contact your GP surgery and ask them to remove it for you.

Why can't I see or change my chosen pharmacy?

According to the NHS App guidance, there are three common reasons the option is missing or locked:

• Your GP surgery dispenses your medicines itself, which happens at some rural practices, so there is no separate pharmacy nomination to manage.
• You have more than one chosen provider, for example a high street pharmacy for medicines plus a separate appliance contractor for medical equipment such as stoma or continence products.
• You manage the account on behalf of someone else. Proxy accounts cannot change another person's chosen pharmacy in the app.

In all three cases, your GP surgery can sort the nomination for you over the phone or at reception. If you are stuck, ask any pharmacist to look at what is set on the system. We can see where your prescriptions are being sent and tell you exactly what needs changing.

Do you have to nominate a pharmacy at all?

No. Without a nomination, your prescription becomes a barcode in the NHS App, and you can take it to any pharmacy you like. That flexibility suits people who move around a lot. The trade-off is that the pharmacy only sees your prescription when you show the barcode, so you may wait while it is prepared, and if an item is out of stock they will need to order it in while you wait or come back.

With a nomination, the NHS says to allow up to 3 to 5 working days for your chosen pharmacy to prepare a prescription, and the app can show you when it is ready to collect. If you need medicines urgently, phone the pharmacy rather than waiting. And bring photo ID when collecting, as the pharmacy may ask for it.

Why your choice of pharmacy matters more than you think

A gentleman in his 70s came in one evening last winter asking why his blood pressure tablets had not arrived. When we looked him up, his prescriptions were still nominated to a pharmacy near his old flat on the other side of Medway, one that had since cut its opening hours. His tablets had been sitting there, dispensed and bagged, for eleven days. He had been without them for four. We rang the other pharmacy, arranged the transfer, moved his nomination to us with his consent, and he has not missed a dose since. Nothing about that problem was medical. It was a settings problem.

Two pieces of counter-level advice. First, check your nomination whenever you move house, change GP surgery, or sign up to any online pharmacy app. Some online services set themselves as your nominated pharmacy during sign-up, and patients only find out when their usual pharmacy has nothing for them. Second, pick a pharmacy whose opening hours match your life, not just the one nearest your GP. If you work shifts or care for someone, a pharmacy that closes at 5:30pm will keep costing you lunch breaks.

Medway Pharmacy on Canterbury Street in Gillingham is usually open 7:30am to 10pm, seven days a week excluding bank holidays, which is exactly why many of our patients across Gillingham, Chatham and Rainham nominate us. You can nominate Medway Pharmacy in a couple of minutes, and our repeat prescription service handles the ordering side, including free collection from your GP surgery and delivery options. If anything in this article does not match what you see in your app, call us on 01634 575805 and we will untangle it.