PSNC has received permission to appeal in its Judicial Review Case against the Secretary of State.
On 20th October 2016, the Secretary of State imposed funding cuts and other changes on community pharmacy. PSNC sought Judicial Review of the decision. 
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On 18 May 2017, Mr Justice Collins gave his judgment, finding against PSNC, but criticising the Department of Health’s (DH’s) consultation process, stating that it was unfair, but not so unfair as to be unlawful. DH had failed to disclose its use of a Companies House analysis that it said showed community pharmacies have an operating margin of 15%. 

In giving permission for PSNC to appeal, Mr Justice Collins stated:
‘While naturally I am not persuaded that I failed in any of the respects alleged … I recognise the real effect of the cuts on pharmacies and the apparent reliance on the 15% and the non-disclosure.’

The appeal is not likely to be heard for several months.

Sue Sharpe, PSNC’s CEO, said:
“We hope that we will be able to have constructive discussions with DH and NHS England. Ideally we would like those to mean we did not need to pursue an appeal, but PSNC will do what it feels is right to protect pharmacies and the patients they care for”.

Mark Burdon, Regional  PSNC Rep  said:
“I’m very disappointed that we were not able to meet the very high threshold needed to prove that the Department’s actions were unlawful and needed review. Of course any legal process costs money, but the sums of money involved, although large, are nothing in comparison with the cuts that we were seeking to prevent.
We felt that we needed to challenge the conduct of the Department, in particular its reliance on a 15% operating margin figure for community pharmacy and withholding information from us, in order to do our best to support the interests of contractors."

Following on from last week's Healthy Living Pharmacy Meeting the following points will help you to achieve HLP status required for the QP.

Training

1. Pharmacist or Lead Member of the team needs to complete Leadership training. 
   This is freely available via a CPPE pack or Workshop.  You are also free to use any other Leadership training you may have done through your own businesses as long as it covers the following areas Inspiring a shared purpose, Sharing Vision, Engaging Team, Developing Capability, Developing the Team 
2. Each Pharmacy needs a health champion who is trained to Level 2 of the Improving Health RSPH Qualification.  This training is available on line from several sources including the NPA and Buttercups. 
   As an alternative we are delighted to announce that we have arranged a face to face workshop locally with Sandie Hall from Tees LPC ( A local champion and expert in Health Living Pharmacy)  This training is a full day event and will cover the Level 2 qualification as well as focus on Healthy Livining Pharmacy. This will be held on the 18th July 2017 at the Quality Hotel  Boldon.  The delegate cost is £100.  Details and a booking form can be found here.

Resources

1. PSNC have produced a very useful set of resources including step by step guides on registering and self assessing, checklist and portfolios templates which will guide you through the criteria for HLP.  Supporting this the LPN Chair has produced the video below which demonstrates, in a practical form, the criteria.
2. We would urge you start to gather your evedience of events, promotions and teamwork that you have already undertaken to add to your portfolio.
3. At the HLP Meeting it was agreed that the LPC would host a page / blog of HLP activity to help share ideas so please let us know what you have done.  If you could send us photos or descriptions we will add them the page.  This page can be accessed by clinking the Healthy Living Pharmacy Logo on the home page.  We have started the page with  Tees' LPC Health Living pharmacies demonstrating some of the promotions that have been run there.
4. The slides from our speakers at the evening event can now be download by clicking here
5. There is now a Pharmoutcomes Assessment module available in Gateshead and South Tyneside which you can use to help monitor your progress.  This is accessed by clicking Assessments in the top menu in Pharmoutcomes.  
6. Finally in order for you to demonstrate the HLP Criteria for QP click here to access our earlier communications which explain what to do.  

It is important you get started asap to ensure your are in a position to claim your QP points in November.  Don’t wait for the training to be complete.  Get started now.

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The LPC is aware many contractors are increasingly facing more & more problems obtaining some medicines (Generic and Branded).  These problems with supply are now being exacerbated by the encouraging of branded generic prescribing within the area.
The LPC advises contractors to firstly contact the prescriber to inform them of any supply problem & request a prescription change to an alternative product, but in order to also maintain a national update of these problems, we encourage all contractors to complete the PSNC 'Dispensing & Supply reporting forms' available on the PSNC website.   There is a form for branded products and generic products.  The form doe not take long to fill and the information provided will be invaluable.
These forms along with other resources and information can be found here

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