 Your LPC is currently working with our colleagues in Gateshead and South Tyneside Councils to develop the latest Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA.)
Pharmacy Contractors will need to fill in a PNA for the council area they are in. Could all contractors please complete the PNA as per the instructions below for your area. This is a statutory document to assess the extent/provision of pharmaceutical services across the area and is used as the market entry document when assessing potential new pharmacy services. It is therefore very important that up-to-date information is provided to give an accurate picture of the current services Gateshead Pharmacies The PNA survey for Pharmacies is open for 6 weeks and closes on 19th January 2025. The survey is a Microsoft Form. We would recommend that you complete the survey in one sitting, however, should you wish to fill parts of the survey in on different occasions until it is complete, once you’ve entered the initial information you want to provide, please go to the last page of the survey and ‘Submit’ the form. You will then see a button to ‘Save my response to edit’. This will save the Form to your Microsoft account (to find it, open Forms in your Microsoft account and then select ‘Filled forms’). You can then edit the form as many times as you need to until the survey closing date. If you do not already have a Microsoft account, you will be able to quickly create one for free. Complete the survey at https://forms.office.com/e/HCSzWF07n1 Public The PNA Survey for the public is a single page document , which we would ask you to make available to your customers. If possible, we suggest printing 10 black and white copies initially and placing them on your counters, recommending them to customers while they wait. The deadline for completion of the public survey is also 19th January 2025. Please post any completed forms to the public health team: Seani Cole Public Health Intelligence Analyst Gateshead Council Civic Centre, Gateshead, NE8 1HH E: [email protected] South Tyneside Pharmacies The PNA survey for Pharmacies in South Tyneside is available as a Pharmoutcomes module. This module should now be available under the services section. The deadline for this is 19th January 2025. Public In South Tyneside the Council is running the public surveys themselves and they will be circulated in due course. As an LPC we would encourage all contractors to ensure they fill in their PNA survey, to ensure that accurate information is captured for the the forthcoming PNA.
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 We would like to make pharmacy teams aware that Pharmacy Advice Audit deadline has been extended to Friday 28th June.
The audit is gathering critical evidence for use in the ongoing call for increased funding and to capture healthcare advisory work not being covered by Pharmacy First. Its results will be used to build more support for the sector from patient groups, politicians, and the national press. Community Pharmacy England has extended the deadline to Friday 28th June to give pharmacy teams more time to take part. The more pharmacies that get involved, the stronger the audit data becomes. The LPC would encourage all pharmacy owners to take part who are able to do so. You can do it over just one day and this is your chance to have a direct impact on the case being made for community pharmacy. Once you have completed the audit, please don’t forget to submit your data on PharmOutcomes. What you need to doOver the course of just one day, pharmacies are asked to follow four simple steps:
The financial situation for community pharmacies is dire. Funding is at a breaking point, threatening the very existence of our service.
We hear you. Your LPC is made up of fellow pharmacy owners who understand the pain you're experiencing. National Negotiations are stalled due to the forthcoming election, but this can be an opportunity. We can use this time to influence a new government united as one. We're Fighting for You:
We need a powerful regional response aligned with national campaigns. Here's how you can join the fight:
Your LPC is here for you. We welcome your ideas. Together, we can make a difference! The LPC has been made aware of growing concerns and reports regarding some pharmacies re-nominating patients without their explicit consent. We have been informed of instances where patients, after visiting a non-regular pharmacy, later discovered they had been unknowingly nominated to that pharmacy. Such actions not only cause significant inconvenience and confusion but also directly violate the principles of explicit consent, thereby undermining the integrity of the nomination process.
The LPC would like to take this opportunity to remind all contractors of the essential principles governing patient nominations. Every pharmacy must adhere strictly to these protocols; any breach of these principles brought to the attention of the ICB will be reviewed and may result in an investigation. Key Principles of Patient Nomination: Explicit Consent Requirement:
The NHS England document "Nomination - What You Need to Know" clarifies that any change to a patient’s pharmacy nomination must be initiated by the patient themselves. Unsolicited changes are strictly prohibited. Under the Community Pharmacy Enhanced Service Covid-19 Vaccination specification pharmacy contractors are explicitly instructed not to use any service interaction as an opportunity to alter a patient’s existing nomination without clear consent. This specification states:
Patients wishing to complain about nomination issues have a couple of options. They can complain directly to the provider, alternatively, they can submit a complaint to the Northeast and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (NENC ICB); the relevant contact details are: Email: [email protected] Postal Address: The Complaints Department North East North Cumbria ICB Pemberton House Colima Avenue Sunderland SR5 3XB Please note: If a patient complains to the pharmacy, and is not satisfied with the response received, they cannot then complain to NENC ICB. The next step would be to contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). The PHSO can review the complaint and may decide to undertake an independent review. The PHSO can be contacted by telephone on 0345 015 4033, on email [email protected] A poster has been produced as a resource; the message to patients is Your prescription: Your Choice. Your LPC are pleased to announce, in collaboration with the local Public Health Team, the launch of TWO NEW pharmacy services in Gateshead. The first is a Naloxone Supply Service, which is an optional add-on for all pharmacies that provide Substance Misuse Services. The second is a brand new Alcohol IBA (Identification and Brief Advice) service. Both services will launch on the 1st April 2024 and the details are below. NALOXONE SUPPLY SERVICE Due to the increase in drug related deaths the service specification for Supervised Consumption will contain an extension to the current service, so pharmacies can supply Naloxone (as Prenoxad) to any person at risk of opiate overdose and/or their family member/carer. Training The training for the service can be accessed through ‘Addiction Professionals Educational Resources’ (ap-elearning.org.uk) where you can sign up to the ‘Freelearn: Naloxone saves lives’ module. You can also access it via the CPPE website on the Substance Misuse module. Further information on when and how to administer the injection is available at the following resources
Funding There is a £50 set up fee for this service (plus the cost of two Naloxone (Prenoxad) kits) and an £8 fee for every supply. The initial supply must be carried out by a trained pharmacist or pharmacy technician though subsequent supplies can be made by any competently trained pharmacy team member. Claims for the service will be made through the new Naloxone Supply module in PharmOutcomes.To assist with the training of the pharmacy staff the LPC have an upcoming Substance Misuse event where one of the topics covered will be the Naloxone Supply Service (further information to follow!) For full information please click here to see the Supervised Consumption Service Specification Pharmoutcomes Initially a sign up module will be activated for you to claim your start up fee. Once this is filled in and submitted the regular module for operating the service will replace the sign up module. Contracting Contracting of this service will be through Gateshead Council. The Naloxone Supply Service is contained within the new supervised consumption spec for 2024. This will be issued as part of the councils annual contracting process. This will be started later on this morning and another LPC communication will follow shortly explaining the process. By signing up to the supervised consumption will enable you to provide the naloxone supply if you wish. (Please note it is optional within the service spec) ALCOHOL IBA The service specification for this new alcohol screening and brief advice service is available by clciking here The new service will allow competently trained pharmacy staff to screen, and where needed, offer brief advice to patients in regard to their alcohol consumption. The screening tools will be available on PharmOutcomes titled Alcohol IBA module. Training Training and learning resources recommended for provision of the service are below
Funding The initial alcohol screening audit attracts a £2.50 fee. For patients who score highly on this, the full audit will be completed and brief advice will be provided by the contractor, attracting a fee of £6.30. Where referral into a specialist service e.g. Gateshead Recovery Partnership, is required and made with the patient's permission, a further fee of £7.20 is claimable. All claims will be made through PharmOutcomes as the screening tools are worked through. Pharmoutcomes Once contracted through to provide the service a module will be switched on for you to use called Alcohol IBA Contracting Contracting of this service will be through Gateshead Council. The Alcohol IBA Serives is a completely new service and will be offered as an option during the annual contracting process. This will be started later on this morning and another LPC communication will follow shortly explaining the process.  The LPC would like to remind contractors that NHE England has updated the specification for the Hypertension Case-Finding Service on their website.
This followed changes to the Secretary of State Directions which allowed pharmacy technicians to start performing blood pressure checks under the service. CPE (Formerlay PSNC) has updated the service page on their website to reflect the changes and updated resources. Below is a summary of changes to the service which we think Pharmacy teams need to be aware of. Summary of changes The key changes in the service specification are highlighted in yellow within the new spec document and they summarised below:
Read and download the service spec Review the updated CPE resources IT Development We would also like to draw your attention to the IT developments for this service. NHS England has announced that pharmacy owners will need to use an NHS approved clinical IT system to make their clinical records and payment claims for the Hypertension case-finding service from 1st September 2023. To begin with, it is expected the following four IT suppliers will develop their systems to include functionality to support the service, but over time, it is hoped other suppliers will add the service to their systems: System and supplier HxConsult (Positive Solutions) Pharmacy Manager (Cegedim) PharmOutcomes (Pinnacle Health) Sonar health (Sonar informatics) NHS England will issue further communications regarding the readiness of the IT systems ahead of the 1st September 2023 deadline. Pharmacy owners providing the service will need to consider which system they want to use and will then need to enter into a contract with that supplier. All service provisions within June, July and August 2023 should be claimed by the current manual MYS process by Tuesday 5th September. Claims at a later date will only be possible via one of the approved IT systems. Further information on this change When the Hypertension case-finding service was first launched in October 2021, the ambition was to develop IT systems that would support provision of the service. These IT systems will allow pharmacy teams to make a clinical record for the service and the data in the record will then be used by the IT system to populate a claim for payment within the NHSBSA’s Manage Your Service (MYS) platform. This means pharmacy owners will not need to manually transcribe data from their records into MYS, as is currently the case. The new approach mirrors what already happens for the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service and the Flu vaccination service. The transfer of data to the MYS platform will be via an API (Application Programming Interface) to automate payment claims and reporting of the data to the NHSBSA.  The LPC has been asked on several occasions by local GP's for a list of bypass numbers for their local pharmacies. This is for GP's to use when they are struggling to get through the main number. We understand that not all pharmacies have a second number however we have put together a short survey to gather any numbers where they are available.
Alongside this we have included questions about services provided at your pharmacy. We hope to also provide this to surgeries when requested to aid them to know which pharmacies offer which services. The data is being gathered via a Pharmoutcomes form. It will be live now on your system and is called "LPC - Pharmacy Questionnaire". We would appreciate it if you could fill this in asap. The survey will only take a couple of minutes to fill in. We ask that all pharmacies fill this in even if you do not have a by pass number (Please just state "No Number available")  Following the LPC facilitated clinical skills training event the LPC would like to thank those who attended this session. The training helped pharmacists extend the their clinical role, in particular to help with CPCS consultations. The number of successfully completed CPCS in our area has significantly increased which is great news.
The slides / presentation from the session were distributed to attendees however if you could not attend the session you can downloaded the slides for our website by clicking here Otoscopes At the event the LPC issued each pharmacy in attendance an otoscope kit , including the otoscope, tongue depressors and some ear piece covers. We would like to remind any pharmacy teams that didn’t attend the session that they can still pick up an otoscope kit . (Only applicable to Pharmacies in Gateshead & South Tyneside) South Tyneside Pharmacies can pick up from Edinburgh Road Pharmacy (ask for Laura or Charlotte) Address :- 89 Edinburgh Rd, Jarrow NE32 4BB Tel No:- 0191 489 8053 Gateshead Pharmacies can pick up from Lobley Hill Pharmacy (ask for Anna) Address :- 72 Malvern Gardens, Gateshead NE11 9LJ Tel No:- 0191 42 00 213 Please note: - Only one set is available for each pharmacy so if you have already been registered as having received a set you will not be able to pick another one up. You will be asked to sign to say you have received it for your pharmacy. Ear Piece Consumables The LPC also arranged from some extra ear piece replacements. However, these did not arrive in time for the session. They have now arrived and can also be picked up as above, thereafter pharmacies will need to source their own. If any Pharmacies struggle then please contact our secretary (Louise Lydon) who will assist and organise with your Pharmacy. Thanks Sami P.S. We are planning future training events. Hold the dates more info to follow 18 Sept 2023 - Blood pressure service event 12 Oct 2023 - Substance misuse, harm reduction, safeguarding 15 Nov 2023 - Stop smoking event, Vaping update  Expression of Interests
Out of Hours - On Call Service - South Tynesdie South Tyneside place based NHS area runs a rota service to provide emergency Out of hours Pharmacy medicines, in particular for urgent medication (e.g. end of life, emergency medicines in place of hospital admissions). This service has been running successfully for a few years and has been commissioned through the LPC Provider company PSNE Ltd in conjunction with the Local NHS place based teams. The service is now looking for more pharmacies to be involved to ensure there is consistent capacity to cover the borough at all times. A service spec can be downloaded here which includes details and fees for the service. Please note the co-ordinator role within the spec is already in place, you will only be expressing an interest to provide the on-call provision. You would also be expected to sign up to the South Tyneside Specialist Medicines Service. Service Spec can be downloaded here. This will involve you holding the South Tyneside formulary of Palliative Care medicines. Please not this is different to the requirements of the PQS to hold certain Palliative Care drugs. The local service has more comprehensive list of items. The latest list of medicines to be held (updated April 2023) has been updated from the service spec and can be downloaded here If you are interested in joining the service please contact Rota Co-ordinator Lee Middleton - [email protected] Gateshead & South Tyneside LPC is delighted to announce the launch of an innovative new service in Gateshead. The LPC has been working behind the scenes with the commissioners at Gateshead council to bring this new service to you.
The service is a really valuable addition to the substance misuse service already commissioned in Gateshead. It enables pharmacies to be remunerated for the extra care and support they often already provide to their substance misuse patients. Patients can be referred into the service either through
Each provision needs to have the patients consent and is shared with Gateshead Recovery Partnership for the ongoing care of these patients. Full details of the service are contained in the service specification. There are no additional training requirements and the specification for this service is now included in the supervised consumption service that you will have already signed up to. The service provision attracts a £15 fee. Click here to view the Service Specifications The service will be operated via PharmOutcomes and should be live in your systems now. |
Copies of our older Paper Based News Letters (The LPC News) can be found by clicking below.
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