Blog Archives

Breaking News! - Pregablin / Lyrica Update - Injunction against NHS!

28/2/2015

LPC News has learned that the judge who heard (and rejected) Pfizer's application for an injunction on Actavis has issued an order from the high court that NHS England issue central guidance that prescribers must prescribe Lyrica when using pregabalin for pain.

Mr Justice Arnold noted
" ... the best solution to the problem which arises in this case is to try to ensure that prescribing doctors prescribe pregabalin for the treatment of pain by reference to the brand name Lyrica rather than by reference to the generic name pregabalin. That will ensure that pharmacists only dispense Lyrica when presented with prescriptions for pregabalin which are (at least so far as the prescriber is concerned) for pain without requiring the pharmacist to know the indication for which pregabalin has been prescribed."

This guidance is contrary to the general prescription guidance which is always to prescribe generically unless there is very good reasons to do otherwise. Pfizer had apparently submitted evidence in this case that indicated local health authorities were refusing to accede to their request to prescribe pregabalin by brand name for the patented use, based on there being "no clinical reason to do so".

LPC News have obtained a copy of the central guidance and pharmacies are expected to receive it direct from NHS England. It does not require a pharmacist to establish the indication. However, if the indication is known to be pain, they must dispense Lyrica.

The document is attached below for your information.

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Hold That Date - 26th March 2015 - Launch Event for Minor Ailments Service in South Tyneside

28/2/2015

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South Tyneside CCG will be launching the new Minor Ailments service via a presentation to pharmacies on the evening of 26th March 2015.
The LPC have been working with CCG and will be hosting the launch event that evening.
We will publish further details once they have been completed. However we are asking you to put that date in your diary and ensure that some one from your pharmacy attends to ensure they learn about the new service and ensure they are signed up.

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Reminder - Contractual Requirements Update

28/2/2015

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The LPC would like to remind pharmacy contractors to ensure that they have completed all their relevant paperwork and submissions needed to comply with their contractual requirements.

Information Governance

This needs to be completed by by 31st March 2015
The IG toolkit can be found at https://www.igt.hscic.gov.uk
Further information can be found on our website. Click Here to access it.

Contract Monitoring - Supporting Documents

Every Pharmacy needs to submit the following Documentation to the area team.

Any completed outstanding Action Plan results – resulting from CPAF Pharmoutcomes assessment
2014/15 Pharmacy based Audit
2014/15 Patient Satisfaction Survey
2014/15 Annual Complaints Report
Up to Date Practice Leaflet

Please ensure that the NHS England Sub region receive these by 31st March 2015
These can be submitted to england.pharmacyandoptometry@nhs.net

Quarterly NMS / MUR Data

Please ensure you have supplied your quarterly MUR and NMS to the NHS England Sub Region.
We have already recently submitted the Q3 2014/15 data (Oct Nov & Dec). Q4 will be due by the 10th April 2015
This data needs to be sent to england.pharmacyandoptometry@nhs.net
Further Information can be found on on our website. Click here to access it.

***** Please NOTE *****
The LPC understand that some contractors have still not submitted Q3 data. If you have not submitted your data yet please do so ASAP to ensure compliance with your contractual obligations.

National Audit

Make sure you are aware of the natonal audit and which period you will need to do.
Current details can be found on our website. Click Here to access it.
We will publish further details as soon as they are released.

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Are You Missing Out on YOUR Prescription Payments? - Webinar - 26th February 2015

16/2/2015

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IPF Webinar
Following on from their previous webinars the Independent Pharmacy Federation (IPF) is putting on a webinar jointly with the NHSBSA and PSNC about Prescription on the 26th February 2015.

Full Details of the Webinar and its contents are below. The event is open to all.

Are You Missing Out on YOUR
Prescription Payments?
Join us for a FREE webinar led jointly by experts from NHSBSA & PSNC

You Can’t Afford to Miss This

Thursday 26th February 2015
7.30-8.30pm

Prescription Processing - What Really Happens?
With Cath Doherty and Neil Hill from NHSBSA
& Prescription Pricing Errors and Endorsing Good Practice
With Harpreet Channa from PSNC

The team comes highly experienced
All working in the field of pricing and processing- They have the answers!

Helping you and your staff understand processing and endorsing better.
Giving you some quick wins on how to improve practice and potentially improve procedures.

Join this interactive webinar register by clicking here

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Information Governance 2014/2015 - Business Continuity Plan

11/2/2015

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Further to our reminder about Information Governance deadline for 2014/15's return. We would like to point out that in previous years there was an exemption granted for the business continuity requirements and pharmacies have so far not been required to have these plans in place.

However, the exemption will not continue indefinitely, so contractors should consider their business continuity planning. The PSNC have produced some Guidance on business continuity planning which can be access by clicking here.

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Community Pharmacy Feedback - Last Years Audit

10/2/2015

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Richard Copeland (CNTW LPN Chair) has asked us to pass on his email below about last years Pharmacy Audit

Email Sent on Behalf of Richard Copeland, Chair, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Local Pharmacy Network

Dear Colleague

You will remember undertaking an audit into NSAID use in 2014. These data have provided some really useful information, also opportunities for learning for our profession.
Please ensure that all Pharmacy staff who participated are thanked for their input and efforts.

As you know this year there will be a National Audit on the ‘Emergency Supply of Medicines’, and details will be provided in the coming weeks.

The summary data from NSAID Audit are below. As noted, these provide opportunities for learning within individual pharmacies, and perhaps more collaboratively.

This information will also be fed back to GP practices via CCG’s.

Yours sincerely

Richard Copeland
Chair, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear Local Pharmacy Network

Community Pharmacy Audit 2013-14

Background
As part of clinical governance requirements for 2013-14, 687 community pharmacies across Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne, Wear, Durham, Darlington and Tees undertook a practice audit, on GI safety of NSAIDs. The expected outcome was that patients at risk of GI bleeding were identified and referred to their GP, either to stop the NSAID or co-prescribe a PPI as gastro-protection.

Results
8,739 patients were reviewed, with the age range reflecting the targeted group for this audit:

21% 45-54 years
26% 55-64 years
22% 65-74 years
10% 75+ years

30% patients had been receiving a NSAID regularly for >2 months, with no gastro-protection via a PPI.
13% patients referred to their GP as a result
58% patients given advice about NSAID use

Commentary
The majority of pharmacists outlined an understanding of NICE guidance and the evidence underpinning the need for gastro-protection. However, there were a small amount of data entries which referenced either a lack of current GI side-effects as a reason for not referring the patient back to their GP, or that an enteric coated formulation of NSAID would offer sufficient gastro-protection.

There are two significant benefits resulting from this audit. Firstly, the data provide an opportunity for learning, highlighting an area of practice which can benefit from input by pharmacists, resulting in reduced risk to patients. Secondly, the audit process can be used to foster professional links with GP practices.

Future Audits
The audit planned for 2014-15 is being undertaken nationally, themed on emergency supply of medicines. Details will be provided once these have been confirmed.

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Pharmacy National audit 2014/15 - Important Information

10/2/2015

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As part of the 2014/15 funding settlement, it was agreed that the first English national audit to be conducted by all community pharmacies will take place during March and April 2015.

Since the introduction of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) in 2005 community pharmacies have been required to carry out an annual audit where the topic of the audit was determined locally by the PCT or latterly by the NHS England area team.

Choosing a national topic allows the audit to focus on a priority issue for the NHS, in this case the provision of urgent and emergency care. The audit is focussed on the emergency supply of medicines and it is hoped that positive data from it alongside other data from NHS 111 and GP Out of Hours providers, will help make the case for the commissioning of community pharmacy emergency supply services nationally.

Following piloting late last year, PSNC have just agreed the final paperwork for the substantive audit with NHS Employers and NHS England. The paperwork still has to go through NHS England’s gateway process and NHS England also has to set up a website to allow contractors to report their consolidated audit data. As a consequence we expect the final version of the audit paperwork will not be issued for up to 2 weeks.

The PSNC We have been able to put some basic information on the audit on the their website ahead of the publication of final audit paperwork; this is available at psnc.org.uk/nationalaudit. The final audit paperwork will be put on that page once it is published by NHS England.

We will also put a copy on our website.

Pharmacy contractors must undertake the audit in one of two defined two week periods:

Period 1 – Monday 9 March to Sunday 22 March 2015 (inclusive) or
Period 2 – Monday 23 March to Sunday 5 April 2015 (inclusive)

PLEASE NOTE - IMPORTANT

In order to get a good range of results from pharmacies across the country, it is very important that there is a good spread of pharmacies undertaking the audit across the two periods. Ideally half of pharmacies should undertake the audit within each period.

When PSNC agreed to the national audit being undertaken as part of the CPCF changes for 2014/15, it was also agreed to seek the support of contractors and LPCs to try to ensure that there is an even split of contractors undertaking the emergency supply audit across the two audit periods.

We understand that AIM and CCA members will receive guidance direct from their head offices to ensure an even split between their pharmacies doing the audits in each period.

To help ensure that the remaining contractors are evenly split across the 2 periods we suggest that we use the last digit of your ODS Code (F code) to determine the audit period:

Odd figure – audit period 1 - Monday 9 March to Sunday 22 March 2015 (inclusive)
Even figure – audit period 2 - Monday 23 March to Sunday 5 April 2015 (inclusive)

Your F code can be found on your month prescription submission document.

Should you have any queries please contact us.

For your convenience the latest information about the audit is below. We will keep you updated as mor information is released

Purpose of the audit

The audit may help to improve the quality of services in three areas:

a) Community pharmacy: services and practices in the pharmacy may be influenced by the results of the audit. For example, the audit will establish the number of patients accessing repeat medication out of hours in the audit period. Pharmacy teams could use this information to work with local GP practices to identify patients who would benefit from management of repeat prescriptions through the NHS repeat dispensing service or who may need more help and education about ordering their repeat medication.

b) Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG): the audit will highlight the number of patients requesting repeat medication out of hours which may prompt CCGs to review the following issues with their GP practices:

Improving information to patients in the out of hours period;
Improving information about repeat prescription ordering systems and the repeat dispensing service; and
Ensuring requests for repeat prescriptions made at the end of the week are dealt with before the weekend.

c) NHS England: support the development of national policy regarding access to urgent and emergency care.

The detail of the audit

The aims of the audit are to understand:

the reasons behind patients requesting/requiring an emergency supply;
the reasons why an emergency supply was not provided (where that was the case); and
the patient’s subsequent course of action had an emergency supply not been provided.

Following piloting late last year, PSNC has agreed the final paperwork for the substantive audit with NHS Employers and NHS England. The paperwork will be published by NHS England shortly, once it has been approved by their internal governance process. Please keep an eye on the PSNC website as we will highlight the publication of the audit paperwork there as soon as it happens.

When should the audit be completed?

Pharmacy contractors must undertake the audit in one of two defined two week periods:

Period 1 – Monday 9 March to Sunday 22 March 2015 (inclusive) or
Period 2 – Monday 23 March to Sunday 5 April 2015 (inclusive)

In order to get a good range of results from pharmacies across the country, it is very important that there is a good spread of pharmacies undertaking the audit across the two periods. Ideally half of pharmacies should undertake the audit within each period.

The second period covers part of the Easter public holidays which is a busy time for healthcare providers, including community pharmacies, but as a consequence it is also expected that requests for emergency supplies will be increased. This should provide plenty of data for the audit.

Pharmacies can choose in which of the defined two week periods they wish to undertake the audit, but PSNC is asking Local Pharmaceutical Committees (LPCs) to try to ensure there is an even spread of pharmacies undertaking the audit across both periods. Please look out for communications from your LPC to explain which audit period they would like to you to take part in.

PSNC has asked the multiple pharmacy groups to do the same within their pharmacies. Consequently pharmacies in multiple groups may want to check with their head office which period they should select to undertake the audit.

Once the audit data period is over, pharmacies should collate their results and then submit these to NHS England’s online reporting system; details of how to do this will be contained in the final audit paperwork.

Do pharmacies have to undertake the audit?

Yes, undertaking the audit is a contractual requirement. If a pharmacy does not undertake the audit it is a breach of their contractual responsibilities.

What to do next

Decide which audit period you are going to undertake the audit within. Seek advice from your LPC or head office before making this choice.
Obtain copies of the audit paperwork. This may be emailed to you by your NHS England area team or you will be able download it from this web page (a news story will be posted on the PSNC website and sent out via our email newsletters once the audit paperwork is published by NHS England).
Follow the instructions in the audit paperwork on completion of the audit.
Submit your collated audit data to NHS England via their web-based system.

It is expected that the collated results of the audit will be published later in 2015 and the data will be used by NHS England and CCGs to consider whether they can work with GP practices and community pharmacies in order to improve services to patients.

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Breaking News! - Pregablin / Lyrica Update - Injunction against NHS!

Hold That Date - 26th March 2015 - Launch Event for Minor Ailments Service in South Tyneside

Reminder - Contractual Requirements Update

Are You Missing Out on YOUR Prescription Payments? - Webinar - 26th February 2015

Information Governance 2014/2015 - Business Continuity Plan

Community Pharmacy Feedback - Last Years Audit

Pharmacy National audit 2014/15 - Important Information

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