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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.

Health Education England (HEE) has invited community pharmacy contractors to a meeting to discuss training of pharmacists to become Independent Prescribers (IP). Earlier, HEE together with NHS England and NHS Improvement has supported a first phase of IP training for community pharmacists from January to March 2022, and is now working to secure a further rounded of funded training from Autumn 2022. The upcoming virtual meeting is aimed to help inform future independent prescribertraining offers by ensuring it is aligned with the needs of the pharmacy workforce.

DE Group, one of the UK's leading independent pharmaceutical wholesalers, has gone into administration. Pharmacy Business has learnt that the group was put into administration on Monday (May 9), putting hundreds of jobs at risk and stoking fears of a "sudden shock" to pharmaceutical supply chain. A community pharmacy contractor who has done business with the wholesaler for over 20 years told Pharmacy Business: "I fear for the worst. I don't think there will be enough supply of medicines to cope up with a surge at such a short notice." Bharat Shah, founder and CEO of Sigma Pharmaceuticals, another leading short-line wholesaler, said the news will send shock-waves and have "a massive impact on the market" because DE Group enjoyed a "substantial coverage and market share" in the independent pharmacy sector. "It won't be easy for anyone to take on the extra volume as it could jeopardise their own business," he said, adding that Sigma was actively looking into expanding its own operations in the foreseeable future.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has introduced new arrangements for the application of discount deduction to community pharmacy payments which will be implemented in six financial quarters beginning in October 2022 and concluding in January 2024. Under the new discount deduction system, the current single scale will be split into three groups: one each for generic medicines, branded medicines, and appliances. Separate fixed deduction rates have been determined for each group. This will provide all pharmacies the same rates of deduction applied to their reimbursement for the three different groups, regardless of the total value of that reimbursement. Fin McCaul, PSNC member and independent community pharmacy contractor, said: "The discount deduction scale has been a point of contention for contractors for many years, and PSNC has long been pushing to remedy this. "The incoming changes are designed to both improve equity of access to margin and manage the distortions presented by branded medicines, which just don't have the same level of discount available as generics.

In a recent meeting with the head of the government's HRT Taskforce, Madelaine McTernan, the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) board members gave a gist on the ongoing medicines supply issues in community pharmacy. The meeting, which explored possible solutions to end the nationwide shortage of some Hormone Replacement Therapies, took place on Friday (May 20). Independent contractors Reena Barai and Olivier Picard gave the so-called 'HRT tsar' an overview of the medicines supply issues in community pharmacy and discussed the new Serious Shortage Protocols (SSPs) which the government introduced in response to the on-going HRT disruption. Earlier this month, the NPA attended an HRT summit organised by the Department of Health and Social Care, alongside other pharmacy bodies, wholesalers and manufacturers. Health secretary Sajid Javid and pharmacy minister Maria Caulfield said they would be working collaboratively with manufacturers to meet demand and boost supply.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has announced the margin delivery rates will increase from October as the agreed £100m write off is implemented. "The baseline margin allowance will remain £800m per year in 2022/23 and 2023/24," said PSNC. "Margin levels in the last two full years (2020/21 and 2021/22), as measured by the Margin Survey of independent pharmacies, were in excess of the baseline allowance, meaning that an excess was accrued." As new services have been introduced and take up of these has accelerated, the amount of unallocated funding left in the CPCF is now less than it previously was. As such, the value of the Transitional Payments will decrease from its current level. Some of the unallocated funding remaining in 2023/24 will be repurposed into a Flat Payment for all contractors (see details below). Over the course of the second half of 2022/23, the value of the Transitional Payments will be phased down. This will start in October 2022 with a reduction in payment levels to approximately 85% of the current level, as shown in the following table:

National pharmacy bodies have called on the government and NHS leaders to take appropriate action to keep pharmacy teams safe from violence and abuse. The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) - in collaboration with the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp), the Company Chemists' Association (CCA), the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) - is supporting an important petition started by Mike Hewitson, a community pharmacy contractor, who has been threatened with stabbing and robbed in his own pharmacy. The PSNC and the other national pharmacy bodies strongly believe that no healthcare professional should have to deal with this, that and pharmacists and their teams should be better protected. It said: "Community pharmacies play an integral role in the delivery of primary care and most patients are highly appreciative of the hard work of local pharmacists and pharmacy teams from dispensing medicines and administering vaccines to providing medical advice and health monitoring services.

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).

Simon Harris bought an average-sized store from a national chain and turned it into a profitable business in just over a year - a great example of how to start up a pharmacy and become successful. His formula was quite simple - recognise the available opportunities, take some calculated risks and reap the rewards. Simon went into pharmacy because he felt it was a profession that would allow him to "help people" and have a direct impact on their lives. "I also thought it was a profession which would allow me to have my own business one day." Since qualifying as a pharmacist from Bath University in the late 90s, Simon did his pre-reg at a large Boots store in Broadmead, where we had some "great experience" as a pharmacist manager. He decided to take a year out and went around the world with his "now wife" and ended up working as a pharmacist for a pharmacy group Down Under which had a contract with the sports industry, i.e. Australian Open and the Australian Football League. "It was quite an experience because at the time I knew nothing about Aussie football but I ended up being their pharmacist after a short conversion course."