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Nine more new products have been classed as 'Drugs for which Discount is Not Deducted' (DND) from 1 July 2022, announced Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). This takes the total number of products granted DND status over the past 2 years to over 500 following checks made by the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee. The Committee had made an application to DHSC and NHSBSA for the following 9 products to be added to the DND list of Individual items to which the discount deduction scale will no longer apply from July 2022: Fludrocortisone 50micrograms/5ml oral suspension (Group) Lorazepam 1mg/5ml oral suspension (Group) Lorazepam 500micrograms/5ml oral suspension (Group) Zopiclone 3.75mg/5ml oral solution (Group) Zopiclone 7.5mg/5ml oral solution (Group) GA explore5 oral powder 12.5g sachets HCU explore5 oral powder 12.5g sachets MSUD explore5 oral powder 12.5g sachets TYR explore5 oral powder 12.5g sachets The DND list is updated monthly by the DHSC and includes grouped and individual items. Individual items are separately listed in Part II of the Drug Tariff.

NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I), in association with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK), has published its first inclusive pharmacy practice (IPP) bulletin, with an overarching ambition "to make community pharmacy a more inclusive environment for all pharmacy professionals". The IPP programme will take practical steps to improve the awareness and understanding at all levels of different cultural beliefs and attitudes, according to the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC). As a member of the IPP Improving Practice and Engagement Group, PSNC has contributed to this issue of the Bulletin, which focuses on how pharmacy professionals can help to reduce health inequalities via the detection and prevention of cardiovascular diseases. The IPP programme, of which the Bulletin forms a part, aims to engage with local communities to help improve their health and reduce inequalities in care - particularly among those from ethnically diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds.

Pharmacy bodies have urged the Health Select Committee to hold the government to account on pharmacy funding and workforce challenges. In a show of unity, leaders from the sector came together to write a joint letter to the chair of the committee and former health secretary Jeremy Hunt and bring to his attention how financial pressures worsened by nearly a decade of a real-term decrease in funding have made the sector virtually untenable. The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC)'s recently published 'Pharmacy Pressures Survey' confirms how this has had an impact on pharmacy contractors, their teams as well as patients. The survey found that 91 per cent of pharmacies are experiencing staff shortages. At the same time, demand for community pharmacists has risen - nine in ten pharmacy teams reported a significant increase in phone calls from patients about prescriptions, and 86 per cent reported a rise in requests for healthcare advice. The letter to Jeremy Hunt is signed on behalf of the four chief executives of the PSNC, the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp), the Company Chemists' Association (CCA) and the National Pharmacy Association (NPA).

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC)'s 2022 Pharmacy Advice Audit revealed that more than 1.2 million consultations a week - or 65 million a year - are now being carried out by community pharmacy teams in England. This is an increase from 2021, when the audit results suggested that in total pharmacies were providing 58 million consultations per year. PSNC has published the findings of the audit of over 4,000 community pharmacies carried out earlier this year. During the audit, 82,872 informal patient consultations were recorded, with the average pharmacy completing 19 consultations per day. This suggests that more than 1.2 million informal consultations are taking place in community pharmacies in England every week. The audit helped to quantify the number of informal referrals being made to pharmacies by GPs and NHS 111, with 7,774 informal patient referrals into pharmacy coming from these routes; grossed up to a national level that means 117,000 cases per week. These are all referrals that could and should have been made by the NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS).

From July 2022, Manage Your Services (MYS) portal will be the only route available for pharmacy contactors to submit all new prescription returns/referred back items and disallowed items, reminded the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC). Contractors will be able to view and submit the required information for all these items only through the MYS portal. The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) will send out a notification email from July (for the dispensing month of June) to the pharmacy NHSmail account if any new referred back or disallowed items have been generated for the contractor to complete on their MYS account. "Contractors can view any referred back items for completion by checking the 'Unpaid items' tab on MYS landing page," PSNC. "It is important to note that prescription returns/referred back items via MYS are only held in the system for a period of 18 months from the date they are first sent to the pharmacy for action; if contractors have not completed and returned any outstanding referred backs before this deadline has passed, the referred back items will be deleted from system."

Pharmacy contractors will no longer need to print and submit a paper copy of their completed FP34C declaration made through the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal when submitting their paper prescription bundle to the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), said the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC). Instead, from August 2022 (for July 2022 prescriptions), NHSBSA will post out a paper Account Identifier Document along with the red separators and pharmacy address labels each month. "The Account Identifier Document should be placed alongside the paper prescription bundle before it is dispatched for payment to the relevant pricing division of NHSBSA," said PSNC. With the help of Account Identifier Document, NHSBSA will be able to easily identify the pharmacy that has submitted the prescription bundle, which will help to speed up prescription processing. "If the Account Identifier Document is lost or misplaced, contractors will still be able to download and print another copy from MYS. The July 2022 Drug Tariff will be updated to reflect this change."

Professional leadership bodies from around the world discussed workforce shortages in community pharmacy and other challenges affecting the sector at a global meeting held in Paris last month. Delegated from Denmark, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, US and the UK updated the conference on how the profession was progressing in practice, technology and workforce development in their respective countries. The UK was represented at World Pharmacy Council meeting by National Pharmacy Association chair Andrew Lane and chief executive at the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee Janet Morrison. Lane said: "It's very useful to be part of a global network of pharmacy bodies who are all going through similar challenges as we are in the UK. Sharing intelligence on other pharmacy systems around the world helps us to prepare the right strategy for engaging with the NHS at home. "Hearing some of the strides in services and digital technology in the profession gives us hope for the future of the sector. It's clear however that key challenges such as workforce shortages are starting to have an effect in other parts of the world too."

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has advised the pharmacy contractors to check that their PMR systems supports correct and complete SSP endorsements. Several tips has been shared by the PSNC with pharmacy contractors after NHSBSA received several electronic EPS SSP claims which did not meet the requirements for a valid SSP between 1 April 2022 and 31 May 2022. PSNC has been working with NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) to understand whether claims for HRT SSPs are being submitted correctly and in accordance with the specific supporting guidance for each SSP. "For any invalid SSP claims, contractors will continue to receive the usual dispensing fee but will not receive any SSP fee (£5.35). Reimbursement for invalid SSP claims will also be in accordance with the prescribed product rather than the alternative product or quantity supplied in accordance with an SSP," said PSNC.

Tesco, one of the leading pharmacy chains in the UK, has been allegedly accused of forcing some locum pharmacists to accept lower rates or it will cancel their booking. The issue has been brought to the notice of the Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) by some of its locum pharmacists members. "Some locum pharmacists who had existing confirmed bookings at Tesco stores have reported to the PDA that the company has contacted them to say that if they do not agree to accept lower rates than have already agreed, the company will cancel their booking," said PDA. "The reported messages follow a communication from Tesco setting self-imposed so-called "wage rates" for locums. This is confusing as locums are self-employed and therefore should be able to negotiate rates with their clients just as any other independent supplier can do. Using terminology such as "wage rates" is more indicative of an employer-employee relationship and could undermine the status of the locum market in community pharmacy. Employees are also entitled to various extra benefits and have greater employment rights."

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has expressed its concerns over sustained pressures on medicines supply that are having a very serious impact on community pharmacy teams and their patients. It has asked contractors and their teams to continue using its regular reporting tools to help them demonstrate the scale of the problems to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and to support escalations as needed. The committee said: "The sustained increases in price concessions that we have seen so far in 2022 - with more than 100 concessions being granted in some months - show no signs of abating, and we know that many pharmacies now find themselves in a critical situation trying to source medicines in timely manner and facing significant financial risk due to greater uncertainty around expected reimbursement prices for a large number of medicines." "We know that some concessions being imposed by the Department do not match contractors' experience on the ground, and we would ask all contractors to continue reporting pricing issues to us on a regular basis to support our representations: Report product over Drug Tariff price."

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has initiated the process for the regional representative election for the North-East and Cumbria region after Mark Burdon's resignation from the committee earlier this year. The North-East and Cumbria region covers Community Pharmacy County Durham, Community Pharmacy Cumbria, Gateshead and South Tyneside LPC, North of Tyne LPC, Sunderland LPC and Tees LPC. PSNC said that Pharmacists who are independent chemists and members or officers of these LPCs are eligible to stand for election as a new regional representative. "An independent chemist is defined in the PSNC constitution as a chemist operating retail pharmacy businesses' from no more than nine premises in England from which NHS Pharmaceutical Services or Local Pharmaceutical Services are provided and a person who is not a member of the Association of Independent Multiple pharmacies (AIMp)," said PSNC. The following PSNC briefing sets out the election process and the actions required by those seeking to stand for election.

Community pharmacy teams are urged to share their views relating to the new NHS Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS). "This will ensure that the tool supports the needs of pharmacy team members and their patients," said the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC). BaRS is an interoperability standard for healthcare IT systems which should enable booking and referral information to be sent to or from care providers, such as community pharmacies, quickly, safely and in a format useful to clinicians. "The intentions are that the BaRS IT standard will eventually be available in all care settings. The way the standard could be used in pharmacies is currently being considered, including the potential for use for referrals from NHS 111 to community pharmacy." The BaRS team are conducting interviews (usually lasting 30-45 minutes) to hear more the current experiences and the future preferences regarding sending and receiving referral messages.

The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has warned of multi-million financial hit for community pharmacies, while the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has renewed its calls for urgent financial support amid a looming energy bill crisis. NPA board member, Olivier Picard, this week shared a screenshot of his estimated electricity bill on WhatsApp groups. Upon expiration of his current arrangements, in October, his electricity bill could rise from its current £1,821 for one pharmacy to an estimated £6,914 - a near fourfold increase. Piccard said: "This is an eye-watering rise in costs for my own pharmacies and adds to the intense financial pressure we're already under. My standing charges will multiply by 10 and the overall cost to each pharmacy amounts to about £5,000." His comments come just ahead of an NPA-commissioned report into pharmacy inflation which will provide an analysis of inflationary costs pressing on the community pharmacy sector, from utilities and workforce to medicines purchasing.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC)'s director of pharmacy funding Mike Dent and Jack Cresswell, its funding strategy manager, will be hosting a webinar about changes to the discount deduction system on Wednesday 12th October at 7.30pm. The discount deduction scale has been a point of contention for community pharmacy contractors for many years, and PSNC has been pushing to remedy this. "The changes will lead to a levelling out for all pharmacies, with the impact on individual contractors varied due to their unique dispensing mix. We have been developing a series of resources about the changes, including an explanatory briefing, FAQs and an impact calculator. Our latest resource comes in the form of a webinar that aims to explain the new arrangements and the transition period in more detail," said PSNC.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has issued a revised guidance for the dispensing of controlled drugs in instalments on 19 September that has been declared as a bank holiday for Her Majesty The Queen's state funeral. PSNC said: "Many instalment prescriptions have already been issued in advance of the upcoming Bank Holiday. Where they contain the Home Office approved wording "Please dispense instalments due on pharmacy closed days on a prior suitable day" then you will need to plan to make these supplies at an appropriate time. This wording would also permit the supply of the initial dose of a prescription starting on the Bank Holiday Monday where the date of the signature is before this." However, PSNC is aware that not all prescriptions will contain such a direction to support the supply, in advance, of a dose for Monday 19 September where the supplying pharmacy is closed. "We recognise that this client group are often vulnerable with multi-morbidities and that the risk to them may be significant. You should therefore exercise your professional discretion in determining when to make an instalment supply for the Bank Holiday Monday. Make the care of the patient your first priority and consider the potential impact of both making the supply in advance and of not making the supply in your decision making process. The exceptional circumstances that led to the Bank Holiday and its short notice may inform your decision."

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has challenged price concessions imposed by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on some of the medicines. It has raised concerns on the process for setting price concessions to senior government officials responsible for medicines supply, warning that the system is not working in the current environment from a community pharmacy contractor perspective. "When a new government takes over next week, this will be one of several urgent topics being raised by PSNC to new ministers, alongside the fuel price crisis, inflationary pressures and winter pressures on pharmacy businesses," said PSNC. The final update to August price concessions was announced yesterday taking the total concessions granted to a record 138 for August. PSNC said: "Of those, 99 were in line with PSNC requests, but prices for 39 lines were imposed by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC): those impositions do not match the purchase prices reported by contractors and the evidence of market prices which we passed on to DHSC. In particular, the final imposed prices of Apriprazole and Temazepam tablets has generated a lot of concern amongst contractors due to the large variation between their reimbursement prices and purchase prices during the month of August."

The British Generic Manufacturers Association has backed the UK government's proposed changes to the Statutory Scheme for branded medicines, which includes a 'Life Cycle Adjustment' (LCA) mechanism to permit a lower rebate rate for medicines sold in competitive markets. The association underscored the necessity for crucial amendments to forestall unintended consequences and ensure a practical alignment with market operations. A precisely tailored approach is crucial in ensuring sustainability and growth in this sector, the BGMA said in a statement on Oct. 11. The Department of Health and Social Care is currently working on the successor to the 2019 voluntary scheme for branded medicines and pricing access (VPAS) agreement, slated to end in 2023. Negotiations for this successor, scheduled to begin on January 1, 2024, are already underway. "We are pleased that the Statutory Scheme consultation recognises that branded generic and biosimilar medicines are subject to different market dynamics and competitive pressures," said Mark Samuels, Chief Executive of BGMA. "As such, a one-size-fits-all approach across all branded products is not suitable for the next five years. It is crucial to adopt a precisely tailored approach to this sector, ensuring both sustainability and growth."

Community pharmacy representatives and MPs from across all political parties discussed the impact of winter pressures on pharmacies in England during a parliamentary drop-in event held on Tuesday (5 December). As many as 34 MPs attended the event, including Bradford South MP Judith Cummins, who hosted the event. Members of the Community Pharmacy England (CPE) Policy Team and LPC leaders briefed the politicians about the current winter pressures that all NHS community pharmacies are grappling with, and asked them to help get more support. CPE Chief Executive Janet Morrison said: "Community pharmacies play an active role to support their patients throughout the winter period, but the sector needs fair and proper funding to enable its vital services to be delivered in the long term. This event came at a key moment for the sector as we work towards implementing the Pharmacy First service and negotiations begin for the 2024/25 Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF).

When I was asked by fellow independent contractors to join the Review Steering Group (RSG) back in late 2020, I said yes, because I wanted, fundamentally, to look for some ways to improve both LPCs and PSNC. Through my experiences with Greater Manchester LPC I had seen the sorts of changes that LPCs could make and the positive impact that those had on local engagement and in allowing us to do more to support contractors: I wanted to help share what we had learned with the rest of the country. I was pretty sure that the national negotiator could make some positive changes as well. It took longer than I had hoped. And it was a lot harder than I had imagined - not least because of the extent of some of the divisions within our sector - but after 15 months of hard work, I'm pleased with where we have got to, and I believe the 37 changes being proposed will help all contractors. Consensus is not a sexy word. It is not something that fires up our imaginations or that we put on our list of key work objectives for the year. It is also not something that might come naturally to us as independent contractors. But consensus is something that matters. It is the thing that allows us, as a vibrant and diverse group of businesses, to see beyond our differences and to fight together for outcomes that benefit every single one of us. Consensus is also the thing that the RSG has been relentlessly focused on throughout its work, and it's at the heart of what will give our LPCs and PSNC a stronger voice for community pharmacy in the future.

Community pharmacy teams in England have broken all previous records by a distance and delivered nearly five million flu jabs in the past season. They have administered over 2.08 million more flu vaccinations under the national programme during 2021-22 than the previous year, which is a a 75 increase, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee has reported. According to latest data published by the NHS Business Services Authority in its Advanced Service Flu report community pharmacy has administered 4.85 million vaccinations under the national Flu Vaccination Service in 2021-22. The total number of vaccines administered in community pharmacies in 2020-21 was 2.77 million. Commenting on the end-of-season figures, PSNC chief executive Janet Morrison said: "I am thoroughly impressed to hear it confirmed that community pharmacy has had another record-breaking year of flu vaccination provision. The ability of pharmacy teams to deliver the healthcare services that communities need, despite the challenges and pressures this winter, is simply phenomenal.