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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.

NHS England has urged the pharmacy owners to continue to voluntarily submit New Medicine Service (NMS) quarterly summary data to the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) for Quarter 4 (Q4) 2022/23 (January to March 2023). Community Pharmacy England have agreed with NHS England that the quarterly returns will continue to be on a voluntary basis, with Q4 (January to March 2023) as the second quarter to be reported. It has thanked all the members that submitted NMS quarterly summary data for Quarter 3. The mandatory requirement to submit this data has been suspended since 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "NHS England wants to continue collection of the quarterly returns to provide baseline data to support a long-term evaluation that will be conducted as part of ongoing work to expand the scope of NMS," said Community Pharmacy England. Voluntary submissions can be made via the NHSBSA website, where an updated reporting spreadsheet is also available for head offices to use who are able to submit data on behalf of multiple pharmacies.

As we transition in England through yet another NHS organisational change, I ask myself what does this mean for community pharmacy? I would like to think that this change will bring about opportunity and a chance for community pharmacy to showcase and continue the excellent work that was carried out during the height of the pandemic and is still ongoing today. I hope that it allows community pharmacy to be regarded as part of the NHS rather than sitting on the side lines. This change has to lead to better funding for community pharmacy, without sufficient funding we will see more pharmacies close. We are hearing a lot about winter pressures but this year it feels like all year round pressure. What I have seen, whilst the NHS is under such pressure, is North East London (NEL) CCG transitioning to an integrated care board (ICB) almost seamlessly. I have seen people transitioning into new roles, whilst working hard to ensure that all plates are still spinning, which at the moment is no mean feat. I spent a day out recently visiting pharmacies with the chief medical officer of NHS NEL, Dr Paul Gilluley. The visits were positive, we felt listened to and understood. The feedback was great, it was recognised that community pharmacy is often the informal front door to the NHS and that we have so much to offer in terms of ill health prevention. Community pharmacy can offer a total solution as long as we have the tools to do so, which can save so much time and money. An example is the GP CPCS service, which has launched well across NEL.

NHS moves a step ahead towards its efforts to address covid-19 backlogs by opening a new 'planned care' hospital in Berkshire dedicated to non-emergency treatment. Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot, part of Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, will focus on cutting waits for routine care with staff prioritising patients who have been waiting longest, including for orthopaedic and ophthalmology services. The hospital houses six operating theatres, 48 inpatient beds and 22 day-case cubicles and provides surgical, diagnostic and outpatient care, and will treat patients across Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey. There will also be a range of outpatient services under the same roof including gynaecology, urology and cardiology services. These will be supported by services offering patients endoscopy, physiotherapy, phlebotomy and radiology checks and treatments.

Men can now have their blood pressure checked while visiting a barbershop. The NHS is extending its blood pressure screening services to different local venues, including barbershops, mosques, and pharmacies. This initiative aims to address the increasing risk of strokes and heart attacks among men. NHS staff's life-saving actions coincide with recent data indicating that high street pharmacies administered 149,865 blood pressure checks to individuals over 40 in May 2023. This marked a notable increase from the previous year's count of 58,345 in May 2022, the NHS said. "More than 1,300 heart attacks and strokes could be prevented this year thanks to the high street checks." "The total number of blood pressure checks delivered by pharmacy teams in the year to March was more than 1 million (1,053,278)," the NHS added. Furthermore, the government has committed £645 million for a range of added pharmaceutical services. This includes a target of conducting 2.5 million extra blood pressure checks annually at community pharmacies. This effort is estimated to avert over 1,350 cardiovascular events per year - equivalent to averting 113 heart attacks and strokes each month.

The Pharmacists Defence Association (PDA) has expressed its keenness to work with the NHS nationally and at the ICB level to discuss how the pharmacist workforce can most effectively be part of the multidisciplinary team, after the publication of Long-awaited NHS England workforce plan. Welcoming its publication Alison Jones, PDA Director of Policy said: "It gives greater clarity around the future direction and strategy for professional development, training, and opportunities for those currently working in the health service or considering their future career. There is a strong emphasis on further development of the clinical role of pharmacists to support better patient care. "However, this is a plan that will take years, indeed decades to come to fruition and its success will need to be underpinned by significant funding for its entire life course. Workplace pressures, reductions in support staff, and a lack of protected learning time are matters of immediate concern for many PDA members, issues which are regularly highlighted through activities, such as the safer pharmacies survey.

Pharmacy chain Superdrug has introduced what it asserts to be the most affordable private flu vaccinations offered on the UK high street. The vaccinations will be priced at £8.79 for 17.2 million members of its Ghada , and £16.99 for non-members. The 2023-24 vaccination service is set to become available across 150 of its stores starting from early September. Superdrug has taken this step in response to a change in NHS England's inclusion criteria, which has rendered the 12 million individuals aged 50-65 ineligible for the NHS flu vaccination service, the company said. The company is anticipating heightened demand for private flu vaccinations due to the postponed commencement of the NHS service and alterations in eligibility for free flu jabs. "Our waiting list for private flu vaccination services has already exceeded last year's figures, indicating a heightened demand this year," said Ghada Beal, Superdrug's Healthcare Director. "Providing this service at a more accessible price-point is significant, given the eligibility changes that will impact millions. Our private flu vaccination services provide a convenient means for individuals to safeguard themselves against flu and its potential complications." In May, the government's annual flu vaccination programme letter indicated that individuals aged 50 to 64 won't receive free flu vaccinations in the 2023/24 season. Moreover, the NHS plans to delay flu vaccine distribution to October, with the goal of enhancing protection for those aged 65 and older and other eligible groups during the winter months.

Dr Amanda Doyle has been appointed as NHS England as director of primary and community care. Prior to her new role, Amanda had joined NHS England and NHS Improvement as North West Regional Director on 2 August 2021 and previously she was the Chief Clinical Officer for West Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Blackpool CCG and Fylde and Wyre CCG. Amanda was also the Integrated Care System Lead for Lancashire and South Cumbria, leading a large health and care transformation programme across the patch. She has been a GP for more than 20 years, practising in a large practice in a deprived area of Blackpool, which, in addition to primary medical services, provides a range of urgent care services for patients across the Fylde Coast. Amanda was the Co-Chair of NHS Clinical Commissioners from 2013 to 2018. She was Senior Responsible Officer for the primary care component of the Long Term Plan and was involved in the leadership of the health inequalities, prevention and personalisation elements.

Britain on Monday (January 10) put the biggest private health companies on high alert to deliver crucial treatments such as cancer surgery should Omicron overwhelm National Health Service hospitals in England. The United Kingdom's death toll from the Covid-19 pandemic stands at 150,154, the world's seventh worst official Covid toll after the United States, Brazil, India, Russia, Mexico and Peru. Prime minister Boris Johnson has bet on refraining from lockdowns to deal with the Omicron variant which in recent weeks has swept across the UK, albeit with death rates significantly lower than previous waves. In a sign of just how stretched the NHS could become, health secretary Sajid Javid ordered England's NHS to strike a three-month deal with private health companies to allow patients to get treatments such as cancer surgery outside. "Millions of patients have already got their tests and treatment quicker thanks to our existing deal with independent providers," said David Sloman, NHS England chief operating officer and Covid incident director.

NHS England has commissioned the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) to develop guidance that helps community and hospital pharmacy teams across Britain to reduce the impact of pharmacy services, pharmaceutical care and medicines on the environment. The RPS said the Greener Pharmacy Guidance will enable pharmacies to self-assess their impact against the standards, benchmark and improve through evidence-based activities and actions. "I'm delighted our strong commitment to helping pharmacy reduce its environmental impact can now be taken to the next level through developing guidance and accreditation for pharmacy teams," RPS president Professor Claire Anderson said. "Medicines account for 25 per cent of carbon emissions within the NHS and this initiative underscores our commitment to promoting sustainable healthcare and supporting the NHS's goal of achieving 'net zero' emissions by 2040." Peter Morgan, medicines assistant director at NHS England, commented: "Pharmacy staff are involved in the purchasing and dispensing of almost every medicine used in the NHS and the new Greener Pharmacy Guidance and Self-accreditation scheme will provide support for pharmacy professionals by outlining clear actions to deliver more environmentally sustainable pharmacy practices." The RPS said the guidance and digital self-assessment toolkit will integrate with carbon calculator tools to help pharmacy teams to measure their carbon footprint, action plan to reduce use of carbon and improve sustainability.

Community pharmacy may have to share workload as NHS emergency service - 999 - has faced the busiest ever month in October with staff attending to a record 1,012,143 calls, data released today (November 11) has revealed. Of the total, 82,000 were life threatening call-outs, an increase from 61,561 in October 2019. Besides, major A&Es treated over 1.4 million people during October and the NHS Covid Vaccination Programme delivered more than 7.5 million jabs, including more than 5.9 million top-up jabs. Professor Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said the latest data show that "pressure on the health service remains incredibly high," therefore, people with minor illness should "contact their local pharmacists." He encouraged people to come forward to take Covid and flu jabs.

NHS Somerset is aiming to grow its referral rate through GP Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (GP CPCS) to between 4,000 to 6,000 patients a month. Since June 2021 GPs in Somerset have successfully referred around 1,000 patients a month through the Somerset GP Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (GP CPCS) Currently, 59 of NHS Somerset's 64 GP practices and all of Somerset's 102 community pharmacists are using the Somerset GP CPCS. NHS Somerset found that providing the right training for GPs and for reception staff and practice managers was key to a smooth rollout and uptake of the service. As was making sure the technology worked when making referrals from general practice to community pharmacists. NHS Somerset is using software called Patient Access Connect, which seamlessly integrates with the EMIS Web GP system used in Somerset, to give practices a quick and easy way to capture the patient information needed to deliver a referral.

ECG has launched a new 'simple and straightforward' Patient Group Direction (PGD) service for pharmacists working in primary care, together with a service which offers direct access to an NHS Consultant for medical advice to offer robust safeguarding as and when needed. Taking on more clinical services with the PGDs can feel daunting and a big responsibility for healthcare professionals. ECG's new medical advice service (for anyone purchasing their PGDs) will offer pharmacists the opportunity to call and speak to a clinical member of the ECG team who will triage the calls and support them. If required, the call will be connected to an experienced NHS Consultant to offer immediate medical advice. The service will start with a Monday-Friday 08:30-16:30hrs provision with an option to increase to 24 /7 for those working out of hours. This is inclusive in the PGD pricing offer. ECG has been the market leader in providing vaccination training to pharmacists since 2004, providing robust knowledge and clinical skills to enable pharmacists to develop their private and NHS commissioned vaccination services (such as flu and covid). By developing their close working relationship with all of the multiples, many smaller chains, membership groups and independents over the years, ECG has continued to further consolidate their 'one stop shop' approach to supporting the sector. ECG wants to offer this sector choices in the level of guidance and support that the individual healthcare professionals feel they need to offer safe care to patients.

Community pharmacy teams have administered almost 4.8 million flu vaccinations under the NHS Flu Vaccination Service in 2021-22, which is 73 per cent more more than the 2.8 million vaccines administered last season. Data received so far from PharmOutcomes and Sonar Informatics has confirmed that pharmacy teams have administered 4,793,124 vaccinations, although the total number will be even higher as some data are still awaited and some pharmacy teams have not used the electronic systems to record administration of vaccines. The Flu Vaccination Service 2021-22 ended on March 31, 2022 and the total number of vaccinations administered (which will include the figures from pharmacy teams who did not use electronic systems to record administration of vaccines) is expected to be published later in the year by the NHS Business Services Authority.

The NHS Confederation has urged the government to reconsider its 'living with Covid' plan and introduce mitigating actions that will help avoid further critical incidents being declared at the NHS front-line. The organisation said the high rates of Covid is having a major impact on the delivery of health services and slowing down efforts to reduce large waiting lists, noting that the country has been in the grip of another spike in Covid cases resulting from the Omicron BA.2 variant. With more than 20,000 patients now in hospital with Covid (or who have Covid but are in hospital for other reasons) and high staff absences, NHS is facing huge operational challenges, harming efforts to reduce waiting times in other areas, it said.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has been reminding contractors to complete the 2022/23 Community Pharmacy Assurance Framework (CPAF) screening questionnaire by midnight on Wednesday, 31 August 2022. As a result of NHS regulations introduced at the end of 2020, completion of CPAF is now a requirement of the Terms of Service. "Therefore, contractors must complete the screening questionnaire and, if required, the full CPAF questionnaire," said PSNC. It has also recommended that any contractor who has yet to do so takes immediate action. "It should only take approximately 10-20 minutes to complete." Information and instructions on how to complete the screening questionnaire has been shared either via an email from the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) or from their own Head Office. Contractors are advised to contact NHSBSA by emailing nhsbsa.cpaf@nhs.net if they have not received details of the questionnaire, or if they have any problems or queries completing the questionnaire.

Rising chronic illnesses and an aging population are threatening to bankrupt the National Health Service, Labour's Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said on October 11. Streeting announced a substantial £1.1 billion injection to strengthen the NHS with the goal of clearing the backlog and introducing additional clinics on evenings and weekends. The frontbencher outlined a reform agenda to ensure NHS is back on its head for the future of healthcare in the UK. Streeting said that a Labour government will not waste "money we don't have"- instead aims to revolutionise the NHS by shifting its focus from hospitals to communities. "Our emphasis is on transitioning from an analogue to a digital framework and prioritising prevention over sickness-oriented healthcare," he noted.

Titan PMR has been accredited by the NHS to provide electronic prescription services (EPS) to dispensing doctors. Over 1,000 of these doctors, who provide a vital service to almost 10 million people in rural communities, can now offer their patients the same level of benefits and efficiencies that electronic prescriptions and Titan PMR have brought to pharmacies around the UK. These features will also increase efficiency for dispensing doctors, who will reduce dispensing errors and improve organisation, increasing their capacity while enjoying the ability to integrate with other technologies. After a full year of testing, including six months of compliance testing at a practice in Cumbria, the new accreditation for Titan also has potential to help the NHS fulfil its target of all prescriptions being issued electronically. Currently written paper prescriptions from dispensing doctors account for around seven per cent of the total prescriptions in England - around 6.5 million each month. "Until now dispensing doctor surgeries have basically been in the digital dark ages when it comes to dispensing medicines," said Tariq Muhammad, a tech entrepreneur and CEO of Bristol-based Invatech Health, which developed Titan PMR.

The specification for the Pharmacy Contraceptive Service has been launched for pharmacy contractors to download from the NHSBSA website. However, the service will not start on 11th January 2023, as originally planned, but it is expected to commence in early 2023, revealed the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC). It added: "The exact start date is yet to be agreed, as now the service specification has been published, community pharmacy IT system suppliers need time to develop support for the service, so this is available to contractors from the service commencement date." Commenting on the publication of the service specification, Alastair Buxton, Director of NHS Services, at PSNC said: "When time in their busy professional lives allows, the publication of the service specification ahead of the start of the new service provides contractors and their teams with an opportunity to learn more about it and to consider whether it is something they will have the capacity to provide in due course.

Pharmacies have administered more than five million flu vaccinations under the national flu vaccination service in 2022/23, revealed the advanced service flu report published by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA). According to the report, 5,007,578 million vaccinations has been administered by community pharmacies in 2022/23. Whilst in 2021/22 the total number of vaccines administered in community pharmacies was 4.85 million. The service has continued to achieve year-on-year growth in the number of vaccinations administered since it launched in 2015. Commenting on the end-of-season figures, Alastair Buxton, Director of NHS Services, Community Pharmacy England said: "This season's flu vaccination figures are yet another example of the incredible contribution that our members and their teams make to protect the public and the NHS as part of a key public health programme. "Given the significant financial and workforce pressures that our members continue to face, this year on year growth is a fantastic achievement and a testament to their hard work and dedication.