From April 2022, contractors will have to make all monthly FP34C submissions only through the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) said in an update.
This will be for prescriptions dispensed from March 2022.
The last paper FP34C submission document will be posted out to contractors this month.
Contractors who have not yet registered for MYS, can do so by completing the form on the NHSBSA's website.
While encouraging contractors to switch to the MYS, the negotiator stated that nearly 1,500 pharmacy contractors still depend on the paper FP34C submission document.
More than 9,300 pharmacy contractors would benefit from earlier advance payment in February, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) said in an update.
Contractors who declared their January 2022 FP34C submission figures through the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal by February 5 will receive earlier advance payments
by today (February 10).
The statistics indicates nearly 2,000 contractors will not receive any earlier advance payment this month, either because their January declarations were submitted late or they used the paper FP34C submission document to make their declaration, PSNC said.
These contractors will receive their advance payments in accordance with the normal payment timetable i.e. on March 1.
The negotiator reminded contractors that from April 2022 MYS will be the only process to make monthly submissions.
The new Smoking Cessation Service (SCS) will commence on March 10, 2022, allowing community pharmacy contractors to register to provide the service on the NHS Business Services Authority's (NHSBSA) Manage Your Service (MYS) portal from March 1, 2022.
This is the second of the two new Advanced services to be introduced this financial year, after the Hypertension case-finding service, which were agreed outcomes from negotiations for Year 3 of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework.
Since the service is an Advanced service, contractors are free to decide if they wish to provide it, as most would be busy completing work for the Pharmacy Quality Scheme 2021/22 alongside winter-related workload, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee said.
Therefore, those who decide to start this service should consider the likelihood of receiving sufficient referrals to make provision of the service worthwhile, the PSNC said.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has appointed Sunil Kumar, an independent contractor from Darlington, as the Regional Representative
for the North East and Cumbria region.
"Kumar will represent all independent contractors in the region at the PSNC Committee until 31st March 2023, which is the end of the current term for all Regional
Representatives," said PSNC.
PSNC's North East and Cumbria region covers the areas of Community Pharmacy County Durham; Community Pharmacy Cumbria; Gateshead & South Tyneside LPC; North of Tyne
LPC; Sunderland LPC and Tees LPC.
Now is the best time for community pharmacy to integrate its model of NHS representation and support to ensure better outcomes for contractors, said James Wood, director of Contractor & LPC Support, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC).
It is important for the sector to adapt to the new landscape and address challenges such as workforce, digital data, integration of pharmacy services, and medicines optimisation, he said during the first session of the sixth annual Pharmacy Business Conference held online on Tuesday, September 21.
Under the new system, every part of England will be covered by integrated care systems (ICSs) from April 2022. ICSs have been created to bring about big changes in how health and care services in England are planned, paid for and delivered. They are a key part of the direction of travel for the NHS as outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan.
Community pharmacy contractors will start receiving materials for the winter vaccines campaign via Royal Mail from today (November 8).
It is the second mandated health campaign for 2021/22 in which contractors must participate as part of their NHS contractual requirements, after the NHS England and NHS Improvement and Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) reached an agreement.
The campaign pack, to be arrived in pharmacies, includes a briefing sheet; four A4 posters; one Q&A leaflet; and one A6 shelf wobbler along with social media and digital resources.
PSNC has also reminded contractors to have "an action plan" promote Covid-19 vaccinations, particularly in Black, Asian and minority ethnic and low uptake communities.
More than 6,000 pharmacy contractors who declared their October 2021 FP34C submission figures by November 5, will have received earlier advance payments on November 11.
The contractors had submitted their claims through the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal.
All contractors who received payments under the system would have got a letter from the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) regarding these payments,PSNC stated.
Approximate 3,000 contractors submitted claims after November 5, and will receive payments as per the normal payment timetable on December 1, it said.
The negotiator encouraged contractors to benefit from earlier advance payments by submitting their monthly declaration through the MYS portal by the 5th of the month.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee has announced that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has granted the following price
concessions for November 2021.
Contractors can find information on the price concessions and learn about the process involved on PSNC's website.
A price concession only applies for the month in which it is granted. No additional prescription endorsement are required as the new price is automatically applied by the NHSBSA to all items submitted for payment in the same month for which a price concession is granted.
PSNC is still working with the DHSC to agree further concessionary prices on other drugs reported to be unavailable at the stated November 2021 Drug Tariff price.
To complete the evaluations of Lateral Flow Device (LFD) test kits, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will approach pharmacies and send 15 combined kits
to pharmacies in December.
The combined kits will contain a standard LFD pack, one PCR test along with comprehensive instructions.
For the evaluation, a part of meeting Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) obligations, UKSHA needs "dual swabbing through the community
pharmacy Covid-19 lateral flow device distribution service."
Pharmacies receiving these kits need to finish the current open carton of LFD packs and then open the next standard carton.
Pharmacy negotiator PSNC has advised pharmacies to be mindful of "the expiration date of the kit and ensure these are handed out in sufficient time."
More than 10,000 pharmacy contractors those have declared their March FP34C submission figures through the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal by 5 April will
receive earlier advance payments on Monday 11 April, the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) announced.
Around 10,700 pharmacy contractors have made their submissions through MYS portal. They will receive their advance payments some 20 days earlier than the normal
payment timetable.
However, due to late submission (after April 5), over 500 contractors will not receive any earlier advance payments in April. These contractors will receive their advance payments on 1 May, in accordance with the normal payment timetable.
From this month, MYS is the only route available to contractors for all monthly FP34C submissions.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) reminded contractors that from this month (for prescriptions dispensed in March), the NHSBSA may apply an administrative deduction of £25 if a prescription bundle is submitted late.
The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has raised concerns over "a prominent pharmacist's call to create a sector 'blacklist' for locums regarding disputes over rates."
A few contractors took it to the Twitter to share screenshots of the messages by locums demanding more pay, which led to the call for 'blacklisting' those locums.
"The motivation regarding the current talk of creating a blacklist seems intrinsically tied to hourly rates. Although there are occasional and isolated anecdotal reports on social media of alleged incidents of locums seeking higher rates than already agreed, these are far outstripped by reports of pharmacy businesses unwilling to negotiate and who do not want to pay the necessary rate to engage a locum and instead have set capped or fixed rates," said the PDA.
It added that all parties should honour agreements they enter into, including a pharmacy's commitment to the NHS that it will open at set times to provide
pharmaceutical services to patients and the public.
Wales has begun the rolled-out of a community pharmacy prescribing service as part of reforms agreed by the Welsh health minister last December.
Eluned Morgan approved wide-ranging changes following re-negotiation of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework with Community Pharmacy Wales, the
representative body for community pharmacies in Wales.
The roll out will allow appropriately trained community pharmacists to treat an extended range of conditions that currently require people to visit their GP.
Initially pharmacist prescribers will be able to prescribe medicines, including antibiotics for acute illnesses like urinary tract and upper respiratory tract infections, and also prescribe routine contraception.
The first of its kind in the UK, the service is being rolled out progressively across Wales, building on local schemes which are already in place.
I have always been passionate about Community Pharmacy and am proud of the way that the sector navigated itself through Covid-19 and is currently navigating itself through all the changes in the NHS landscape.
When I started my role in Sep 2019 as the CEO of Kent LPC, I used to say that community pharmacy has changed more in the last five years than the 15 before that,
however, I now believe community pharmacy has changed more in the last two years than the 20 before.
The year 2019 saw the start of the five-year Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework which set out how community pharmacy would support delivery of the NHS long term plan. What PSNC (or any of us) when negotiating this deal had not envisaged was the Covid-19 pandemic.
Whilst the world turned upside down, we saw high street shops close their doors and immense pressure flood the NHS. Community pharmacy did what they always do, they adapted, teams came together, worked through, and showed resilience in the face of adversity.
In Kent, I saw us integrate into primary are and into the NHS structure very quickly, in the first few weeks after Covid-19. All the usual red tape was removed, we all worked together to implement services to help patients in a matter of weeks when they would have normally taken months.
The commencement of the weight management campaign has been postponed from the scheduled date of January 4, 2022 due to delay in the delivery of the campaign resource packs, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) stated.
After a new delivery date for the resource packs has been confirmed, PSNC will announce the new start date for the programme, which is the third mandated
health campaign for 2021/22.
Community pharmacy contractors can now submit their December 2021 claims for the Pharmacy Collect service by the end of January 2022.
Considering high demand for Lateral Flow Device (LFD) test kits, the UK Health Security Agency, Department of Health and Social Care, and NHS England and NHS Improvement have agreed to extend the submission deadline "on an exceptional basis."
For December 2021 claims, contractors must make submissions before 11.59pm on January 31, 2022, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has informed.
Nearly 9,000 pharmacy contractors benefitted from earlier advance payment in January, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) said in an update.
Contractors who declared their December FP34C submission figures (for the dispensed prescriptions) through the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal by January 6, would have received earlier advance payments on January 12.
Meanwhile, all contractors who made submissions after January 6 or used the FP34C paper document, will receive payments as per the normal payment schedule i.e. on
February 1, 2022.
PSNC encouraged contractors to submit their monthly declaration through the MYS portal by the 5th of the month to avail early payments.
Community pharmacies played a central role in the government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic, delivering more than 22 million jabs in the past 12 months.
Besides delivering millions of jabs, latest figures from NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) revealed a 50 per cent increase in the number of pharmacies
delivering Covid boosters compared from October 2021 to January 2022.
NHSE&I released the data on Friday (January 14) to thank community pharmacy teams for their work during the crisis time.
Lauding the efforts made by community pharmacy teams during the pandemic, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) director of NHS Services Alastair Buxton said: "Just over a year ago we were fighting for Government recognition of the part community pharmacy could play in administering Covid vaccines, so a year later it is great to see the efforts of the pharmacy vaccination sites being praised by NHSE&I, with recognition of the significant role they have played in the overall programme.
Workforce issues, staff retention and capacity continues to be a big concern for the Local Pharmaceutical Committee as it discussed the topics at a recent meeting with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC).
The meeting, attended by delegates from 66 LPCs, focused on the current challenges faced by community pharmacies as well as the planning for the next year.
Around 64 per cent of delegates said workforce was the top challenge faced by pharmacy contractors, and suggested reducing the migration of pharmacists to Primary Care Networks (PCNs).
Other suggestions included - "improving the development opportunities available for pharmacists and their teams, and rebranding the profession to make community pharmacy a more attractive route for young graduates."
On the development of Integrated Care Systems (ICS), the majority of respondents were positive about their LPC's engagement in the new setting.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee has announced that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has granted final price concessions
to further items for the month of November 2021.
A price concession only applies for the month in which it is granted. No additional prescription endorsement are required as the new price is automatically applied by the NHS BSA to all items submitted for payment in the same month for which a price concession is granted.
Contractors can find information and learn about the process involved on PSNC's website.
Check pharmacy business website for price concession list november 2021.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC)'s North-East and Cumbria regional representative, Mark Burdon, has resigned from his role. The Committee has invited all eligible independent contractors to fulfil the post.
The new regional representative will be asked to hold the position until the end of the current term for all Regional Representatives which is now March 31, 2023.
"A representative of independent contractors in the following Local Pharmaceutical Committee (LPC) areas will be sought: · Community Pharmacy County Durham ·
Community Pharmacy Cumbria · Gateshead & South Tyneside LPC · North of Tyne LPC · Sunderland LPC · Tees LPC," said PSNC.
Eligible independent contractors from these LPC areas are invited to express their interest in the role and then, if an election is triggered, to vote to select their new regional representative in due course - PSNC will issue a full briefing on this process.
Further information, including details about the role of regional representative, the election process, actions required for those seeking to stand for election and timescales, will be shared by the committee with the relevant LPCs and contractors in due course.
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