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The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has rejected Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England's proposal on price concessions reform and relief measures to ease pressure on pharmacies. The Committee called the proposal 'insufficient' to meet the sector's needs considering the impact of the current crisis, reflecting on the economic pressures that accelerated through the autumn and winter. The Ministers and other decision-makers have shown their interest in the potential role of community pharmacy, particularly in using a Pharmacy First approach and making use of PGDs and the skills of independent prescribers. But the Committee had made clear to them that without new money this is all a pipedream. "We need an urgent injection of funds into the sector, otherwise we will continue to see a degradation of services and eventual collapse of the network. The Committee is clear that there is no further place for warm words while pharmacy collapses," said PSNC. The Committee reflected that the 5-year CPCF agreement had been based on working together to create the capacity and context necessary to deliver the shift towards greater service delivery. Not only has that capacity-release not happened due to slow progress by Government, but pharmacies have also been burdened with these additional, and insurmountable, challenges.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) will introduce new arrangements for the setting of Drug Tariff Category A reimbursement prices from April 2024. Driven by ministers, DHSC's decision aims to equalise access to margin on Category A medicines and it's part of a series of drug reimbursement reforms proposed by the department following a public consultation in 2019. Currently, prices of medicines in Category A are subject to monthly adjustment. From 1 April 2024, these will be updated quarterly based on sales and volume data obtained by DHSC under the Health Service Products (Provision and Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2018. The transition will conclude in July 2025 when the reimbursement prices will be exclusively determined by the new method. Advance notice for contractors regarding the 'new arrangements' has been outlined on the NHSBSA website. However, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) did not support the introduction of the changes at this time as pharmacies are currently grappling with "wider challenges" and there is uncertainty about the potential impact of these changes on the already "turbulent" medicines supply chain

Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has explained MPs on instability that puts operational pressures on pharmacies, financial pressures on businesses at a Parliamentary drop-in event held on Monday (10 July). The association has been in Parliament today alongside patient representatives and others to highlight our ongoing concerns about medicines supply to MPs. It said: "Medicines supply remains a critical issue for community pharmacies with disruption causing problems both accessing medicines and procuring them cost effectively." In CPE's recent sector polling, community pharmacy owners rated medicines supply instability as being the most severe pressure facing their businesses. This echoed the results of CPE's Pressures Survey which found 97% of pharmacy owners survey are facing significant increases in wholesaler and medicine supply issues, with 71% saying this was leading to delays in prescriptions being issued. During the Parliamentary drop-in event, CPE talked MPs through the issues and set out what it believe needs to happen to resolve them, calling for- Reform of Serious Shortage Protocols; Allowing generic substitution; An overhaul of the concessions system; and a strategic Government review of medicine supply and pricing with a shift to focusing on how to improve the functioning of the supply chain rather than solely on the drive to depress prices and margins.