'I tried to help in Covid - now face £100k fine'

John Davey said him and his team did everything possible to keep vulnerable customers safe during the Covid pandemic

The owner of a chain of pharmacies in Liverpool says he is being asked to repay up to £100,000 to the NHS for deliveries he made to isolating patients during Covid.

John Davey from Davey's Chemist says eligibility rules, which asked customers to provide a Test and Trace ID number, were unrealistic for many older people and those who didn't understand the system.

He is being supported by his local MP Maria Eagle and the National Pharmacy Association, which represents Community Pharmacies.

But the NHS says the rules were made clear at the time, and Mr Davey has a right to appeal the decision.

Davey's Chemist has five branches in Liverpool and during the pandemic they were delivering to hundreds of customers every month.

Owner John Davey said him and his team did everything possible to keep vulnerable customers safe.

"We embraced what we needed to do. We kept our doors open – myself and the teams in my pharmacies went above and beyond, put themselves at risk, did everything we could for our community."

Between March 2021 and February 2022 pharmacies received £6 from the NHS for every delivery they made under a special programme called the Community Pharmacy Home Delivery Service.

But years on – the NHS is asking for up to £100,000 of it back from Davey's Chemist.

The guidance to pharmacists stated that only isolating customers with a Test and Trace ID number qualified for free deliveries.

Those ID numbers were given out by the Test & Trace service to people who had formally registered a positive Covid test or were identified as being in close contact with someone who had.

But that meant those who had developed Covid but did not have a formal test, those around them, and people who had been "pinged" by the NHS Covid App did not qualify for free pharmacy deliveries.

John Davey decided, despite the guidance, that many of his isolating customers needed deliveries whether or not they had the ID number because he said the system wasn't working.

"We had to make a judgement call," he said, adding that without the deliveries, customers would have brought infection to his shops and staff.

"If we didn't there would have been more deaths, more illness, the virus would have spread quicker."

Mike Kearns has spoken about how much John and the team helped him during Covid.

During the pandemic community pharmacies were dealing, not just with illnesses relating to the virus, but also with ongoing medication needed by patients with chronic conditions.

Mike Kearns, 76, from Huyton has type 2 diabetes and a number of other conditions which need daily medication.

When he fell ill with covid in late 2020 he needed to keep getting his prescriptions, but knew he needed to isolate.

"You wouldn't want to be in a position where you passed something like that on to somebody elderly or in a vulnerable position so that was the thing - stay where you are," he said

But Mike, who lost two relatives to Covid at around the same time, said he did not have anyone who could have gone to get them for him. Instead he got a free delivery from his local Davey's Chemist branch.

"It was great that there was that facility for everybody," he said.

John's MP Maria Eagle's office has written letters on his behalf.

National Pharmacy Association (NPA) chair, Oliver Picard says several of their members have had issues with this scheme.

"Some Pharmacies are saying that if I have to repay this money …then it could lead to the closure of my pharmacy," he said, adding that many independent pharmacies had struggled financially since Covid.

"We want to invest in community pharmacy. We don't want to punish them for a service that was delivered five years ago in good faith in the middle of a pandemic."

The NHS Business Services Authority says it is instructed by NHS England to recover overpayments from contactors when they have been made.

It adds: "Contractors do have the right to appeal any decision to recover overpayments by making representation to NHS Resolution". John Davey's appeal is currently being considered.

The NHS points out that documents sent to pharmacists setting out the Community Pharmacy Home Delivery Service all specified the need for a Test and Trace ID number. But John Davey says he will continue his fight. "They've not questioned the fact that we did the deliveries, " he said.

"It's completely unjust, unfair. It doesn't meet any of the criteria about putting patients first"