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PQS Aspiration Payment Deadline - 9th October 2020

6/10/2020

Pharmacy contractors have only a few days left to claim an Aspiration payment for the Pharmacy Quality Scheme 2020/21 Part 2 as the window for claiming this payment closes on 9th October 2020 at 23:59.

The NHSBSA have informed us that not many contractors locally have claimed the aspiration payment yet. Please be aware of the deadline and ensure you get your claim in on time.
Contractors who wish to, can claim an Aspiration payment for this scheme, to assist with cash flow. The Aspiration payment can be claimed through the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal. To qualify, contractors will have to declare that they will complete PQS Part 1 and they will need to decide which domains they intend to meet at the February 2021 declaration period.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have confirmed in their PQS guidance that the Aspiration payment will be paid to contractors on 30th October 2020.

Locally the
Click here to learn more about claiming the Aspiration payment on the PSNC Website.

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PSNE Flu Service - Council Flu Services

2/10/2020

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You will know that each year we work with our colleagues in Public Health at the council to arrange a council funded flu service for their staff.  This has well recieved each year and we have developed good working relationships with the public health teams in both Gateshead and South Tyneside resulting to ensure that the service meets the needs of the councils and their staff and the public they serve.
With councils requiring greater numbers of people vaccinated and the complications posed by covid it became evident that we needed to work slightly differently this year.  
Working with our colleagues in neighboring LPC's along with our provider company PSNE we have put together a larger - more comprehensive - service which includes all pharmacies across the PSNE footprint. This means that eligible staff from one area can visit a pharmacy near to their home in a different area and still obtain their council funded flu jab.
Pharmacies in the following areas are invited to join the scheme

Gateshead
South Tyneside
Newcastle
North Tyneside
Northumberland
Sunderland

The service will be contracted and operated via PSNE and will be arranged via a contract variation with PSNE. Shortly you will see a new Pharmoutcomes module appear where you can download the contract variation and sign up to the service. Please look out for this. It will be called : PSNE Flu Contract Variation.

We are very aware that vaccine supply is an issue at the moment in light of the extra demand. We encourage you to still sign up to the service so that if you are able to source more vaccine or the reported government stock pile is released to pharmacies you will be in a position to provide the service.

If you work for one of the CCA companies (Boots, Lloyds, Asda, Tesco, Rowlands , Well and Superdrug) we will be contacting your regional / head office to sign up on your behalf. Please confirm with your line management whether your pharmacy has been signed up to provide the service.
The councils are keen to start as soon as possible so we would really encourage pharmacies to sign up as soon as possible so that we can provide the council a list of pharmacies taking part.
There are some difference this year to the service so we have summaried some important details below and ask you read the information below.

Please note , as the service is much more comprehensice this year, it is important to fully understand the detail below and keep an eye on communications via Pharmoutcomes messaging through out the season.

PSNE Flu Service
Regional Pharmacy Network
By signing up to the service you will become part of the PSNE Flu Pharmacy Network. This network will be offered to councils and other organsiations that approach us for Flu Services. Any council or organisation that signs up will be able to send their staff to any of the pharmacies in the network.

Councils Signed up so far
The service has been commissioned by Gateshead Council, South Tyneside Council and Newcastle Council so we will be starting with them.

We will keep you informed as the season goes on as to which other organisations staff you can vaccinate under the scheme. This will be communicated via Pharmoutcomes messages so please ensure you keep an eye on these.

Gateshead & South Tyneside
Gateshead and South Tyneside are expanding the nuber people who are eligible to receive the vaccine this year and we will supply you details of who will be eligible in due course. The numbers are significant and many are working from home so will be looking to visit a pharmacy near their home which could be in any of the areas invited to take part in this service. The council may also look to target certain communities also to increase uptake. As the details come through we will let you know and update Pharmoutcomes modules accordingly.

Other Organisations
We have been approached by other organisations who would like to use the network to vaccinate their staff. The discussions with these organisations are in exploratory stage at the moment however if they come on board we will inform you via Pharmoutcomes messaging.

Pharmoutcomes 
Pharmoutcomes will be used to claim the service.  It will also help guide you to the information required by each council /organisation

PreConsult
The Pharmoutcomes module will link in with pre-consult.  If you are using pre-consult.  The system will integrate with the PSNE Flu modules helping you to offer COVID friendly paperless measures. It is envisaged that Pre-consult with screen for the NHS service and if the patient is not eligible it will then offer the PSNE or Private service. We will supply more information about this as soon as we have more detail.
Please note that if you use Pre-consult, there will be a nominal one of charge of £35. This is an unavoidable fee from Pharmoutcomes as there has been a substanstial amount of work integarting our module into the preconsult system.

Although not compulsory, we would recommend that you use pre-consult to make your service more efficient and covid friendly.

Fees
Each vaccine delivered through the PSNE Flu Service will result in a fee of £17 inclusive of relevant VAT.

Offsite Clinics.
Offsite Clinics are included the service spec to enable flexibility to the councils however with the current covid situation it is not being taken up in the first instance.  The councils will be encouraging eligible people to attend the pharmacy.  Should the council like to use offsite provisions they will do so by liasing with PSNE who will co-ordinate clinics with willing pharmacies.
If you would be interested in providing clinics please click here to access an expression of interest form which will take your preferences and pass it on to Ann Gunning, North Tyne LPC and PSNE Operations Lead who will keep a register of interested pharmacies and co-ordinate clinics should they activated by the council.
Schools - South Tyneside
We understand that some of you have historical relationships with schools where you have provided offsite clinics.  Should the school contact you direct please encourage them to send the staff to pharmacy for the vaccinations. The council will be supplying them a list of pharmcies also.
Please note:  Offsite vaccines can only be claimed if the clinic has been commissioned by the council and subsequently arranged via PSNE. You can not claim vaccines given offsite without the the clinic being arranged via PSNE.

Vaccine Supply
We are very aware that vaccine supply is an issue at the moment in light of the extra demand. We would encourage you to still sign up to the service so that if you are able to source more vaccine or the reported government stock pile is released to pharmacies you will be in a position to provide the service.

PGD
The service will run via your own private PGD. You will be responsible to ensure you have a private pgd in place. Should you volunteer for offsite you will also need to ensure that your pgd and insurance will provide appropriate cover.

Walk-In / Appointments
Eligible people will be advised by the council to contact the pharmacy to find out how the service is being run e.g appointments or Wak In as well as vaccine availability.

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PQS Aspiration Payment Deadline - 9th October 2020

PSNE Flu Service - Council Flu Services

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