Blog Archives

Pharmacy Funding Petition on the UK Government Website

30/12/2015

Following the Department of Health announcement just before Christmas regarding the cut in Pharmacy funding the LPC has learned that a petition has been started on the UK Governments website. Although the LPC has not had an involvement in this we thought that we would bring it to your attention..
The link to the petition is https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/116943

Alongside the petition, as mentioned in our previous communications the LPC will also be working with national bodies to ensure the your voice is heard.

Seasons Greetings from your LPC

23/12/2015

In an extremely busy period, with uncertainty around the corner due to the Department of Health announcement, the LPC would like to say "thank you" for all the hard work you have done with your teams over the past year helping patients in our area - and acting as one of the pillars of the NHS - true unsung heroes!

It was unfortunate that the department of health has chosen the busiest period of the year to make its contradictory announcements, however you can rest assured that in the new year Gateshead &South Tyneside LPC and Sunderland LPCs will be working with national bodies to ensure that your voice is heard and we will try our best to ensure we secure fair remuneration for all your hard work as the DoH plans unravel. Your contributions to the health of our communities, and efficiencies already made by community pharmacies will be relayed to the department of health in a robust manner.
The LPC committee members would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

P.S. As in previous years we have published a Christmas LPC Webpage which contains interesting miscellany for you. It can be seen by clicking here

National Distance Selling Pharmacy - Operational Difficulties - May affect patients locally

23/12/2015

The LPC has learned that Pharmacy2U (a distance selling pharmacy) is experiencing unforeseen operational difficulties which means that they are struggling to send medication out as quickly as necessary and in fact will not be able to deliver any prescriptions until the week commencing Monday 11th January. Due to this, they are advising that patients, who cannot wait until the week commencing 11th January, to make arrangements with a local pharmacy to have the next prescriptions dispensed.

The LPC would like contractors in our area to be aware of this so they can help patients locally if need be.

For more details see Pharmacy2U's current statement http://help.pharmacy2u.co.uk
.

EPS Update - Changes to EPS

22/12/2015

HSCIC have releases an EPS bulletin. You can view it by clicking here.

Two important areas you may wish to be aware of are below.

Coming soon... Cancellation enhancement

From late January 2016 an enhancement will be made to EPS to improve the prescription cancellation processes.
Currently, when a prescriber wants to cancel a prescription or prescribed item, if the prescription has already been downloaded by a dispenser, the cancellation will be unsuccessful and flagged as ‘cancellation pending’. The prescription or prescribed item will only be cancelled if the dispenser returns the item to the EPS. The patient's medication record can then be updated.
The enhancement means that the subsequent cancellation response message will now also be sent if a prescription or prescribed item, which is flagged as ‘cancellation pending’, is recorded as 'not dispensed' by the dispenser.
This change will improve the accuracy of the patient medical record within the prescriber's system. More prescribed items which are flagged as ‘cancellation pending’ will be confirmed as cancelled. This will reduce the ambiguity over whether the patient did or did not receive prescribed medication that the prescriber requested to be cancelled.
This change will allow the dispenser to dispense and claim for other medication on a prescription where one or more items on the prescription needed to be cancelled. It removes the need for a dispenser to request a replacement prescription, saving time for both the prescriber and dispenser.

Coming soon... Changes to Electronic repeat dispensing

From February 2016, a change will be made to the repeat dispensing logic, which will ensure that the timing of each repeat dispensing issue aligns with the frequency that the prescriber originally intended. The change will remove the need for a dispense notification to be sent before the automatic countdown to the next issue can begin.Currently, the countdown to the next issue of a repeat prescription doesn’t begin until a dispense notification has been issued. This can delay the automatic download of future repeat prescriptions from the Spine, resulting in items not being available for patients in time.
A dispense notification must still be sent as soon as possible, but this will not delay the start of the automatic countdown to the next issue.

Although EPS is already widely liked by prescribers, dispensers and patients there are improvements that can be made. Here is a roundup of some of the enhanced features and improvements coming soon.

Gateshead EXTRA Care - Important Service information for Gateshead Pharmacies

19/12/2015

Please see information below form our colleagues at CBC / Pharmicus regarding extra GP sessions in the Gateshead area.

There is some important information regarding contact numbers that all pharmacies need to be aware of in the area.

Any queries regarding this should be directed to Catherine Armstong at Pharmicus.

The Extra Care Service is a GP Service that has been operating in Gateshead as part of the Prime Ministers Challenge Fund and will run until end of March 2016.

Prescriptions from the service have an office based number on them - The office number on the prescriptions is not manned for all hours that the service is operational. The mobile numbers listed below go directly to the admin staff working for the service who will be far better placed to put pharmacists in contact with GPs for any queries etc.

Extra Care - Background
The Extra Care Service offers additional routine GP and Nurse Appointments at two locations - Blaydon and Trinity Square Health Centre. The service is accessible by Gateshead practices who can book their patients directly using EMIS Web.
The service operates at the following times:

Blaydon: Monday to Friday 08:00 - 20:00. Saturday and Sunday 09:00 - 14:00
Trinity: Monday to Friday 16:00 - 20:00. Saturday and Sunday 09:00 - 14:00

Home Visiting Service
In addition, there is a home visit service that operates out of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. This service is also accessible to Gateshead practices who can refer their patients directly and is available to any house bound patient with one or more long term condition. The home visiting service operates at the following times:

Monday to Friday 16:00 - 20:00. Saturday and Sunday 09:00 - 20:00

Contact Numbers
Extra Care
Blaydon: 07784056440
Trinity: 07784056441
Home Visiting Service: 07715 414057

Antibiotics aren't always necessary for Sore Throats

19/12/2015

We know that many patients are turning up at surgeries locally saying their sore throats have lasted over 5 days and therefore needing antibiotics. Some have cited pharmacies as having advised them to do so.

Our practice pharmacy colleague (Kathryn Featherstone) has provided us with a resources that may help you when dealing with sore throats. This may also be useful as a piece of CPD.

The help sheet (based on what the GPs / Nurses use) may help to guide pharmacists as to whether patients might need antibiotics for common respiratory conditions - including the Centor Criteria for sore throats and a graph to show how long patients should expect to have their symptoms.

Breaking "Bad" News - 6% Slash in funding for Pharmacy

17/12/2015

In an open letter to PSNC, revealed at a meeting hosted by pharmacy minister Alistair Burt today (17th December), the government has announced that funding for community pharmacy in 2016/17 will be cut by £170m. The cut, from £2.8bn to £2.63bn, is a reduction of more than 6% in cash terms.
The letter is signed by the Director General, Innovation, Growth and Technology, Department of Health and the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer.

The decision to publish the letter is unprecedented, and in stark contrast to the secrecy that the NHS has always insisted on for negotiations in the past. Read the Department of Health/ NHS England letter.

Sue Sharpe (PSNC) has made the following Statement

At a time when primary care and urgent care services are struggling to manage demand, this is a profoundly damaging move. It will deliver a destructive blow to the support community pharmacies can offer to patients and the public. Community pharmacies provide vital healthcare and advice which reduces the burden on GPs and urgent care services and helps the NHS to cope with winter pressures.

The letter speaks of the potential for far greater use of community pharmacy and pharmacists in prevention of ill health, support for healthy living and minor ailments, but almost inevitably the impact of the cuts will force pharmacies to reduce staffing levels and direct more people to GP or urgent care. We remain staggered at the decision by the NHS to abandon negotiations on a national minor ailments service over the summer, a move entirely inconsistent with exploiting the potential identified in the letter.

Pharmacy owners, whose funding has been under pressure and who have been absorbing efficiencies over the last few years, will be incredulous that the Government:

“Believes those efficiencies can be made within community pharmacy without compromising the quality of services or patient access to them.”

There are many excellent business owners in the pharmacy sector, who are incentivised to run their businesses as efficiently and effectively as possible, meeting the needs of their patients and providing support to them, whilst delivering massive savings to the NHS by reducing drug costs. They will be sceptical about the expertise within the Government that underpins its assertion.

For some months PSNC has been awaiting news from the NHS and we had expected that it would not be positive. In a speech at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Annual Conference in September the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer set out his view that large centralised dispensing facilities could be used to dispense up to two thirds of dispensing volume.

The letter includes a jumble of proposed measures, including centralised dispensing and online services. Reflecting the view of the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer that there are too many pharmacies, the letter says:
“In some parts of the country there are more pharmacies than are necessary to maintain good access.”
The threat to the network is clear but the letter is very short on detail on how the NHS will manage this “clustering” of pharmacies.

The only context in which patient choice is mentioned is to give patients the option of online services. The letter states that the Department will consult on the introduction of a scheme to provide additional funds to ensure that “those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive”. Following the shambles of the ESPLPS this promise will give little comfort to pharmacy contractors.

PSNC will meet in early January to agree how to deal with this.

Breaking "Bad" News - 6% Cut in Funding for Pharmacy

17/12/2015

In an open letter to PSNC, revealed at a meeting hosted by pharmacy minister Alistair Burt today (17th December), the government has announced that funding for community pharmacy in 2016/17 will be cut by £170m. The cut, from £2.8bn to £2.63bn, is a reduction of more than 6% in cash terms.
The letter is signed by the Director General, Innovation, Growth and Technology, Department of Health and the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer.

The decision to publish the letter is unprecedented, and in stark contrast to the secrecy that the NHS has always insisted on for negotiations in the past.

Read the Department of Health/ NHS England letter.

Sue Sharpe Chief Exec of PSNC has made the following Statement

At a time when primary care and urgent care services are struggling to manage demand, this is a profoundly damaging move. It will deliver a destructive blow to the support community pharmacies can offer to patients and the public. Community pharmacies provide vital healthcare and advice which reduces the burden on GPs and urgent care services and helps the NHS to cope with winter pressures.

The letter speaks of the potential for far greater use of community pharmacy and pharmacists in prevention of ill health, support for healthy living and minor ailments, but almost inevitably the impact of the cuts will force pharmacies to reduce staffing levels and direct more people to GP or urgent care. We remain staggered at the decision by the NHS to abandon negotiations on a national minor ailments service over the summer, a move entirely inconsistent with exploiting the potential identified in the letter.
Pharmacy owners, whose funding has been under pressure and who have been absorbing efficiencies over the last few years, will be incredulous that the Government:
“Believes those efficiencies can be made within community pharmacy without compromising the quality of services or patient access to them.”

There are many excellent business owners in the pharmacy sector, who are incentivised to run their businesses as efficiently and effectively as possible, meeting the needs of their patients and providing support to them, whilst delivering massive savings to the NHS by reducing drug costs. They will be sceptical about the expertise within the Government that underpins its assertion.
For some months PSNC has been awaiting news from the NHS and we had expected that it would not be positive. In a speech at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Annual Conference in September the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer set out his view that large centralised dispensing facilities could be used to dispense up to two thirds of dispensing volume.
The letter includes a jumble of proposed measures, including centralised dispensing and online services. Reflecting the view of the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer that there are too many pharmacies, the letter says:
“In some parts of the country there are more pharmacies than are necessary to maintain good access.”
The threat to the network is clear but the letter is very short on detail on how the NHS will manage this “clustering” of pharmacies.

The only context in which patient choice is mentioned is to give patients the option of online services. The letter states that the Department will consult on the introduction of a scheme to provide additional funds to ensure that “those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive”. Following the shambles of the ESPLPS this promise will give little comfort to pharmacy contractors.

PSNC will meet in early January to agree how to deal with this.

Medicine Deliveries - Don't forget about your IG obligations.

16/12/2015

It has been recently reported that a pharmacy has been printing door key codes onto name and address labels of housebound patients they deliver to. This makes life easier for delivery drivers but puts vulnerable patients at risk in their own homes. It is a serious breach of information governance regulations.

Please could you ensure:
1.      Door key codes are never printed or written onto address labels
2.      Door key codes must be treated as highly confidential information which should only be accessed by essential staff
3.      Door key codes must not be written down where they can be accessed at any time by unauthorised individuals.
4.      If a breach such as this occurs the affected individual or their representatives must be informed and the individual asked to change the code.”

Heads Up - NHS England to Commission Emergency Supply Service (PERMSS) Again

4/12/2015

We are pleased to announce that NHS England are commissioning an Emergency Supply of Medication Service (PERMSS) across the region again. Last year the service was a success and they are hoping to build on this. Unfortunately the timesscales for the launch of the service are going to be tight. Last year we were proud of the way that Pharmacies stepped up and engaged with the service. We hope this will be the case again. As soon as the final details are released we will publish them on our news feed. In the meantime you can read about last years service to refresh yourself by clicking here.