Why it is worth publishing something
When a patient looks up 0330 027 1235, this site tells them to ring their own practice on its published number and check. That is the right advice, and it is deliberate: a check that works whoever is calling is more use than us insisting we are genuine.
It also means your reception team answers that call.
A short paragraph on your own website answers the same question without the telephone call, and it carries more weight than anything we say, because it comes from you. Patients who are cautious enough to look a number up are usually cautious enough to check the practice site first.
Short version
For a news item, or a paragraph on your contact page. This is the one most practices want.
Telephone calls about your medicines
Some of our patients are contacted by telephone about their medicines by clinical pharmacists from Virtual Pharmacist Ltd, a clinical pharmacy service we have commissioned. Calls come from 0330 027 1235.
This is part of your NHS care. This practice remains responsible for your care and for your records, and notes from the call come back to us.
If you want to check that a call was genuine, ring us on our usual number, or read more at clinicalcontact.co.uk.
Full version
For a page of its own. Longer, and it covers recording and opting out, which are the two things patients ask about most.
Clinical pharmacy telephone service
We have commissioned Virtual Pharmacist Ltd to provide a clinical pharmacy service to our patients. Their clinical pharmacists are registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council and work to their own clinical governance arrangements.
What they may contact you about
- your medicines or prescriptions
- a structured medication review
- a follow-up after a change to your treatment
- a review of a long-term condition
- anything else the pharmacist needs to check with you
How they will contact you
Calls come from 0330 027 1235. The pharmacist will give their own name and say they are calling on behalf of this practice. They will check they are speaking to the right person, usually by asking your name and date of birth.
They will never ask for your bank details, a password, a PIN or a one-time security code, and they will never ask to access your computer or your telephone.
Recording
Calls are recorded so that the safety and quality of the advice can be checked. Recordings are kept for one year and are then deleted. You can ask for a copy of a recording of your own call.
If you would rather not be contacted
Tell the pharmacist during the call, tell us, or email hello@clinicalcontact.co.uk. It will not affect your care in any way.
Checking that a call was genuine
You can end any call and ring us on our usual published number to check. You will never be penalised for doing so. There is more information at clinicalcontact.co.uk.
For your privacy notice
This is the paragraph that carries your own transparency duty under Articles 13 and 14 of the UK GDPR, so it names the company, the relationship and the retention period. It belongs in your existing notice rather than on a page of its own.
Virtual Pharmacist Ltd. We have commissioned Virtual Pharmacist Ltd to provide a clinical pharmacy service to our patients. Where they contact you, they do so as an independent controller of the record of that contact, under a written data sharing agreement with this practice. Calls are recorded and the recordings are kept for one year. Their privacy notice is published at virtualpharmacist.co.uk. Virtual Pharmacist Ltd is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under number ZB127110.
Check this against your own agreement
The paragraph above says independent controller, because that is the relationship set out in the data sharing agreement. If your practice holds a different version, use the wording in your agreement rather than the wording here, and tell us so we can correct this page.
For your telephone system
One line for an on-hold message or an answerphone greeting. It catches the people who ring you precisely because they did not want to trust a website.
If you have had a missed call from 0330 027 1235, that is our clinical pharmacy service and it is genuine. You can speak to us about it in the usual way.
Linking to this site
Please use descriptive link text rather than "click here". It is better for anyone using a screen reader, and it tells a patient what they are about to get.
<a href="https://clinicalcontact.co.uk">Check a call from 0330 027 1235</a>
If your website software does not accept HTML, link the words Check a call from 0330 027 1235 to https://clinicalcontact.co.uk.
Two words that matter
If you would rather write your own, please do. We would only ask that it describes the arrangement as commissioned, and that it does not suggest our pharmacists take their clinical direction from the practice. The table below gives the five swaps that matter.
| Please avoid | Please use |
|---|---|
| our pharmacists, our pharmacy team | clinical pharmacists from Virtual Pharmacist Ltd |
| Virtual Pharmacist works for us | a service we have commissioned |
| we supervise them, under our supervision | under their own clinical governance |
| staff supplied by, cover provided by | a clinical pharmacy service provided by |
| our locum pharmacists | clinical pharmacists |
The reason is straightforward. The difference between a commissioned service and supplied staff is a real distinction in law, it affects how the service is taxed, and the wording on a practice website is part of the record of which one it is. Describing it accurately costs you nothing and saves us a great deal.
The wider service
Not yet confirmed. Do not publish this list as it stands.
The list below is drawn from what this site already describes plus the obvious neighbouring work. It has not been checked against the service specification, so treat every line as a suggestion rather than a statement of fact.
Practices often want to describe everything the service does, not only the telephone calls. Once the list below is confirmed, this section becomes a sixth block of ready-made wording.
- structured medication reviews
- reviews of long-term condition prescribing
- repeat prescription and reauthorisation work
- medicines reconciliation after a hospital discharge
- monitoring for higher-risk medicines
- answering patient queries about medicines
- care home medication support
- prescribing audit and quality work
Send us the real list and we will write it up properly, in the same voice as the blocks above, with a copy button on it.
Anything else
If you need this wording in a different form, a version for a patient leaflet, or details for a CQC inspection or an information governance return, email hello@clinicalcontact.co.uk and we will send it.
On this page
Details you may be asked for
- Registered company
- Virtual Pharmacist Ltd, England and Wales, number 13258094
- Information Commissioner's Office
- Data protection registration ZB127110
- NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit
- ODS code S6I6X, searchable at dsptoolkit.nhs.uk
- Registered office
- Queen Street Chambers, 68 Queen Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S1 1WR. This is the address on the Companies House record, and the one the footer of every page here has to carry.
- Operating address
- Bramwell Road, Allerton Bywater, Castleford, WF10 2GQ
- Outbound number
- 0330 027 1235
- Pharmacist registration
- Every pharmacist is on the General Pharmaceutical Council register at pharmacyregulation.org. Ask any caller for their registration number.
What your patients see
The main page tells patients the number is genuine, and then tells them not to take this site's word for it and to ring you instead.
Wording last updated
30 August 2026. If you copied a paragraph from this page before that date, it is worth replacing. We will keep this date current so you can tell at a glance.