The results of the Community Pharmacy IT Group's (CP ITG's) IT arrangements survey revealed that 83 per cent of the respondents support the goal of going
paperless.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) asked community pharmacy teams to complete the survey between late 2021 and October 2022.
The survey was designed to gather information on frontline pharmacy teams' perspectives about community pharmacy IT and their pharmacies' IT arrangements.
It was found that more than half of pharmacies experience at least one IT outage per month (lasting at least one hour). Over 40% reported poor mobile phone signal
and limited internet connectivity options at their pharmacy. 80% agreed that mobile devices would help working within pharmacy, but most reported no laptop and no
tablet device available for use in the pharmacy
Amendments to the NHS (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013 along with introduction of a new type of pharmaceutical service
come into effect from Tuesday (December 21) and from January 1, 2022.
PSNC will be consulted on the new type of enhanced service - the National Enhanced Service (NES), where NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) commissions
an enhanced service with a service specification that sets standard conditions nationally.
Other amendments to the regulations include:
Changes in the contractors' terms of service, allowing NHSE&I to introduce a pandemic response programme, by which contractors are required to have various premises
and other arrangements for responding to a pandemic.
An alternative route to supply pandemic treatments, via a listed prescription items voucher (LPIV). This is a further option for the community pharmacy for supply of treatments or medicines during or in anticipation of pandemic disease;
Pharmacy bodies are "bitterly disappointed" that the latest deal on the national contract makes no commitment to "fresh funding", with one organisation calling
it "the biggest dis-service ever done" to community pharmacy.
The only commitment made in monetary terms was one in which NHS England agreed to write off a sum of £100m in excess margin earned by contractors in previous years.
This allowance, which can't be seen as new cash injection, was said to have been made in recognition of the pressures facing the sector.
The figure - reached after what the the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee called "a tense period of negotiations" with the Department of Health and Social
Care and NHS England - will cover the final two years of the current five-year Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework.
The deal was announced by PSNC chief executive Janet Morrison at an annual LPC Conference in Manchester on Thursday (22 September). Welcoming the attendees, she
assured everyone that the committee was well aware of the pressures the sector was facing.
"I heard how contractors are feeling and their frustrations over growing pressure and lack of financial support from the government. They confirmed that many now
are unable to deliver the full range of services, and others are struggling to maintain core levels of services. And the ongoing impact of capacity and workforce
crisis is critical, leading to temporary closures.
YouGov polling commissioned by the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has revealed that majority of the people responding to the poll said
that they would be concern by the pharmacy closure in their locality.
The results show the extent of the public backing for a Pharmacy First approach - PSNC has been arguing that a fully-funded service would be beneficial for pharmacies,
patients and the wider NHS.
The poll witnessed 1,774 adults' participation from England. It showed 68 per cent of people agree that they would find it easier to seek health advice for common
conditions, such as skin conditions or indigestion, at a community pharmacy rather than a GP surgery. Only 11 per cent disagreed that this would be easier.
While 75 per cent of people agree that they would like to see community pharmacies offering more healthcare services such as treating urinary tract infections or
sore throats. Only 6 per cent strongly disagreed with this.
When asked how important, if at all, are the services provided by community pharmacies to them, their family, or community, 78 per cent indicted this was very
important. Only 14 per cent said this wasn't important.
77 per cent said they would be very concerned if the pharmacy they use most often were to close permanently. Only 19 per cent said they would not be very concerned.
Considering the challenges being faced by pharmacies and involvement of their workforce in the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination programme, the requirement to report New Medicine Service (NMS) data for Quarters 3 and 4 of 2021/22 has been paused.
This follows an agreement reached between the NHS England and NHS Improvement and Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC).
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.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has reminded community pharmacy contractors to start working on the quality criteria if they intend to
meet the Respiratory domain of the Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS) 2022/23.
For respiratory domain, community pharmacy contractors must start working towards inhaler waste management; use of a spacer in patients aged 5-15 years; and
personalised asthma action plans, from today (10 October).
Resources are also available to support contractors with meeting the above criteria on the PQS hub page.
PSNC also informed that contractors are also now able to make a claim for an Aspiration payment for the PQS 2022/23 on the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA)
Manage Your Service (MYS) portal.
"The Aspiration payment is optional; if contractors do not want to claim it, it will not impact on the contractor's ability to claim a PQS payment during the
declaration period. There is also no requirement to have claimed for a previous PQS to claim an Aspiration payment for PQS 2022/23.
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."
The community pharmacy bodies, along with England's largest pharmacy chains, have urged the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak to resolve fund and workforce crisis
in the sector.
In the joint letter the Chief Executives of Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp), Company Chemists' Association (CCA), National Pharmacy Association
(NPA) and Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC), along with Boots, Lloydspharmacy, Well and Rowlands Pharmacy, said they are pleased to see Government
now recognising the key role that community pharmacy' could have in alleviating the strain on other NHS services.
However, the associations also warn that although the sector is ready to support, 'this will not be possible unless pharmacy is properly funded.'
Janet Morrison, PSNC Chief Executive, said: "The Prime Minister should also know that community pharmacies are also facing a crisis. They need sustainable investment,
urgently, if we are to avoid devasting consequences for pharmacies and for their patients."
The letter calls on Government to help pharmacy to resolve the funding, workforce and capacity issues engulfing the sector. It said: "Community pharmacies are in
crisis and after 7 years of 30% funding cuts have reached their limit."
The new Smoking Cessation Service (SCS) will commence on March 10, 2022, allowing community pharmacy contractors to register to provide the service on the NHS Business Services Authority's (NHSBSA) Manage Your Service (MYS) portal from March 1, 2022.
This is the second of the two new Advanced services to be introduced this financial year, after the Hypertension case-finding service, which were agreed outcomes from negotiations for Year 3 of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework.
Since the service is an Advanced service, contractors are free to decide if they wish to provide it, as most would be busy completing work for the Pharmacy Quality Scheme 2021/22 alongside winter-related workload, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee said.
Therefore, those who decide to start this service should consider the likelihood of receiving sufficient referrals to make provision of the service worthwhile, the PSNC said.
Nearly 9,000 pharmacy contractors benefitted from earlier advance payment in January, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) said in an update.
Contractors who declared their December FP34C submission figures (for the dispensed prescriptions) through the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal by January 6, would have received earlier advance payments on January 12.
Meanwhile, all contractors who made submissions after January 6 or used the FP34C paper document, will receive payments as per the normal payment schedule i.e. on
February 1, 2022.
PSNC encouraged contractors to submit their monthly declaration through the MYS portal by the 5th of the month to avail early payments.
The regulators have reduced the notice periods for change to supplementary opening hours for community pharmacy contractors from 1 October 2022.
Following the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC)'s discussions with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England as part of
Year 4 negotiations, it has been agreed that the required notice periods for changes to supplementary opening hours will reduce to five weeks.
Community pharmacy contractors who want to change their supplementary opening hours are required by their terms of service to notify NHS England.
"If a contractor wants to increase supplementary opening hours at the pharmacy, this can be done with no notice - but notification of the change must still be
given to NHS England," said PSNC.
"To decrease supplementary opening hours at the pharmacy, at least five weeks' notice must be given to NHS England prior to implementing the change."
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.
Chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee Janet Morrison has said government ministers are looking at the future of community
pharmacy in England in a "bigger way" and have a vision to go "beyond the Scotland model".
"I think they believe they're going beyond the Scotland model," she said, in her closing keynote at the 7th Annual Pharmacy Business Conference held in London on
Sunday (May 14).
Giving her views on the latest government funding - worth £645 million - for community pharmacy, the head of pharmacy negotiator, added: "Their thinking is for the
future in a bigger and a more forward-thinking way."
She added it was for the first time that community pharmacy has been seen "as part of primary care in a really fundamental way that gives us hope for the future".
Morrison said the new funding uplift was effectively "for five quarters of activity," arguing that the common condition service won't start before December or early
in the New Year due to the time it would take to get the IT systems up and running to support the rollout.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee on Tuesday (June 30) renamed itself as Community Pharmacy England, promising a "strengthened commitment" to
champion and engage with the sector.
"The name Community Pharmacy England better reflects the breadth of work that we do to both represent and support community pharmacies in England. We are their
champion," the pharmacy negotiator said.
Explaining that the rebranding exercise was in line with proposals put forward by the Review Steering Group (RSG), it said the rebrand was part of its Transforming
Pharmacy Representation (TAPR) work and that it would signal the beginning of a "new engagement strategy" to build stronger relationships with pharmacy owners.
"Becoming Community Pharmacy England is much more than a name change or a new logo, it is a driver for cultural change across our organisation.
"Our members want us to be more authoritative, representative, and influential, and rebranding gives us a clearer and stronger voice, helping us to better speak out
for community pharmacy."
In an oral parliamentary debate on community pharmacy held on Monday (20 March), the government was asked for an indication of 'how much it would cost to
make the best use of community pharmacies'.
A number of Peers at the House of Lords spoke out in support of pharmacies, while others asked when would the government address the current crisis in the sector.
Kicking off the session, Baroness Hodgson asked the responding minister, Lord Evans, about recent pharmacy closures as well as underfunding. She asked whether the
government would 'enter into discussions with PSNC to look at introducing a fairly funded pharmacy first service as soon as possible which will help relieve the
work load on GPs'.
The minister responded: "We have already introduced and funded a range of service in community pharmacy that make use of the clinical skills of pharmacy teams… we
continue to discuss with PSNC how the government can best support the sector to provide support to patients."
The House of Lords oral questions session was opened by Baroness Hodgson on behalf of Baroness Cumberlege as follows: "To ask His Majesty's Government what plans
they have for making the best use of community pharmacies".
The 'SaveOurPharmacies' roundtable held on Tuesday (21 March) to discuss severe challenges faced by the community pharmacies in England witnessed the support
of 15 MPs.
Janet Morrison, Chief Executive, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC); Andrew Lane, independent pharmacy owner and Chairman, National Pharmacy
Association (NPA) and Ian Strachan, independent pharmacy owner and Board Member, Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIM) attended the summit, which
was chaired by Stephen Hammond MP, to brief MPs on the severe challenges facing the sector.
MPs in attendance were Stephen Hammond, Sally-Ann Hart, Peter Aldous, Anna Firth, Taiwo Owatemi, Bob Seely, Derek Thomas, David Rutley, Lilian Greenwood, Tulip
Siddiq, Hillary Benn, Sarah Olney, Christian Wakeford, Daisy Cooper (researcher) and Victoria Atkins (researcher)
The title of the event 'Community pharmacy's role in the Primary Care Recovery Plan' which is expected imminently, is set to include a variety of measures aimed at
helping primary care to recover from the impact of the pandemic.
PSNC has been pressing for the plan to include a fully-funded national Pharmacy First service as this is the best chance for getting significant additional funds
into community pharmacies.
Leaders from across the pharmacy sector and trade bodies dwelled on the challenges faced by the pharmacists at the Sigma Conference held on Sunday (2 October).
"If the cost of carrying out regulation is higher than the benefits, it's time for all the bodies to sit together and talk on what can be adjusted accordingly,"
said Salim Jetha, Chairman, Avicenna.
Jetha highlighted the challenges faced by the independent pharmacy and also raised the concern about the 'level playing field' for pharmacists compared to GPs. He
said: "GPs get paid for energy cost, premises cost, the staffing cost. We don't get paid for that. So don't be misled by saying we are being exactly the same. Yes,
on paper we are, but in reality we are not. I think also the rules of engagement are different."
He called for better collaboration with GPs, and urged PSNC and other trade bodies to ensure a level playing field.
Janet Morrison, CEO, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee(PSNC), warned that the pressure in the sector is building up to a 'breaking point'.
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.
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."
