GP Surgeries and Pharmacies on Bank Holidays

GP surgeries close on every bank holiday. Pharmacies do not close as a group — a rota keeps some open in every area — and the single most useful thing you can do is order repeat prescriptions before the weekend starts.

What closes

• GP surgeries across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
• Most NHS dental practices — emergency dental care is triaged by 111 or, in Scotland, NHS 24.
• Routine hospital outpatient clinics and planned diagnostics.
• Many walk-in centres; urgent treatment centres often run reduced hours.
• Community services such as district nursing may run an on-call rather than a routine service.

What stays open

• NHS 111 — call 111 or use 111.nhs.uk, 24 hours a day. In Scotland the equivalent service is NHS 24, also on 111.
• A&E and 999 — unchanged.
• GP out-of-hours services — accessed through 111 rather than by ringing the surgery.
• Maternity units — unchanged.
• Mental health crisis lines — unchanged; 111 option 2 in much of England.
• Pharmacies on the local rota — see below.

Finding a pharmacy that is open

Pharmacy opening on bank holidays is organised by rota rather than left to chance. Integrated care boards in England, health boards in Scotland and Wales and trusts in Northern Ireland commission a pattern of cover so that some pharmacies are open in every area, usually for a few hours in the morning or afternoon rather than all day.

1. Use the pharmacy finder on the NHS website (nhs.uk), NHS inform in Scotland, or 111.wales.nhs.uk in Wales — the listings carry bank holiday hours.
2. Call 111 if the online listing is unclear; the service can tell you what is open near you now.
3. Check supermarket and large chain pharmacies separately — an in-store pharmacy is not automatically on the rota and often closes even when the shop is open.
4. Expect short hours. A rota slot of 10am–2pm is common, and queues at the end of a long weekend are long.

Repeat prescriptions: the three-working-day rule

Order at least three working days before the bank holiday, and more before Easter or the Christmas and New Year run when two or more non-working days fall together. The request has to be received by the surgery, authorised by a prescriber, transmitted to the pharmacy and then dispensed — four steps, each of which needs a working day.

NHS organisations issue the same reminder before every bank holiday for exactly this reason. If you run out anyway, a pharmacist can supply an emergency supply of a regular prescription medicine in limited circumstances, at their professional discretion; 111 can also arrange an urgent prescription.

Which bank holidays hit hardest

Easter and the late December period, because they stack non-working days together. In 2026 the Christmas period runs Friday 25 December, the weekend, then the Boxing Day substitute on Monday 28 December — a four-day gap in routine services in England and Wales, and a longer one in Scotland where 2 January is also a holiday. Our Scottish bank holidays page lists the differences.

Choosing the right service

If you are working the day itself, our guides to working on a bank holiday and bank holiday pay cover the employment side.