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The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has refused to accept the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)'s decision to get rid of 'transitional payments' from February 2023. The pharmacy negotiator said that 'any reductions in payments at this point will be impossible for community pharmacy contractors to manage financially.' "We are also continuing to be clear with officials and ministers that CPCF funding needs an urgent uplift to help businesses to cope with soaring costs being driven by inflation and the workforce crisis. We put a comprehensive business case to the government for this uplift in the last CPCF negotiations." The latest 'transitional payments decision' by the Department follows the announcement last year that the value of the these payments would be phased down over the second half of 2022/23 and will be based on the latest monitoring and analysis of funding delivery. PSNC says it submitted a fully-costed bid for a 'Pharmacy First' service in its last round of negotiations alongside the case for an uplift to core CPCF funding. Both of these were refused.

A community pharmacy contractor would be charged £25 if a paper prescription bundle is submitted late to the NHSBSA. "A charge for processing of a late bundle would only apply if a contractor cannot provide evidence, where requested by the NHSBSA, that their bundle was submitted using secure track and trace delivery no later than the 5th day of the following month in which supply was made," said the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC). "Where evidence is submitted, no administrative deduction will be made. If no evidence is provided within the required time, then an administrative deduction will be made from the next Schedule of Payments. The deduction which will appear on schedules as 'Late Fee' under the section "Details of other amounts authorised"." Since the introduction of an administrative charge for late bundle submissions, 16 contractors received a fine for submitting their March prescription bundles late.