Gateshead & South Tyneside LPC  
  • Search
  • Home
  • News Stream
  • Services
    • Winter Access Services
    • Tackle High BP
    • Microspirometry
    • 2019-20 South Tyneside Council Flu Service
    • 2019-20 Gateshead Council Flu Service
    • GP2P Service
    • CPRS
    • NHS Health Checks - Gateshead
    • NHS Health Checks - South Tyneside
    • Think Pharmacy First Gateshead
    • Think Pharmacy First ST
    • EHC-South Tyneside
    • EHC-Gateshead
  • Maintenance
  • Events
  • Contact Us

Serious Shortage Protocols (SSP): - New Pharmacy Legislation to Help Pharmacies

25/1/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture


Draft legislation on Serious Shortage Protocols (SSPs) has been laid before Parliament and should come into force in early February 2019. This follows consultation between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and stakeholders, including PSNC and other pharmacy representative bodies.


SPPs are protocols for pharmacies that will be put in place in the event of a serious shortage of a medicine; they may give pharmacies the ability to dispense less medicine, a different strength or pharmaceutical form of the medicine or an alternative medicine to that prescribed; following appropriate discussions with the patient. SSPs are part of the work being carried out by Government and the NHS in case there is a no-deal exit from the EU, summarised by Dr Keith Ridge here.

It is envisaged that where serious shortages occur, each medicine would have its own SSP which will need to be developed carefully to ensure that it can be implemented in practice. PSNC will be working closely with DHSC on this. The draft legislation now laid is intended to provide the legal basis for the introduction of these SSPs.

PSNC supports this legislation as part of the measures that will help to manage any serious shortages of medicines, such as those which may occur if the UK exits the EU without a ratified deal (a no-deal Brexit).

Key aspects of SSPs are that they will be:
  • proposed only if in the opinion of the Minister there is a serious shortage;
  • developed with the involvement of clinicians;
  • issued only in exceptional circumstances;
  • more likely to be for alternative quantity, strength or pharmaceutical form;
  • less likely to be for generic or therapeutic substitution; and,
  • while introduced due to the possibility of a no-deal exit from the EU, their introduction is not dependent on it.

SSPs will link to a patient’s prescription although, formally, supply to the patient will be against the SSP.

The draft legislation can be found here and is included in (but separate to) UK legislation implementing the final provisions of the EU Falsified Medicines Directive and Delegated Regulation. The DHSC consultation response can be found here.

PSNC responded to the DHSC consultation on SSPs and were pleased to see that their comments and observations had been taken on board. The changes should help by giving DHSC a framework to follow to manage serious shortages of medicines, as and when they do occur.

PSNC has also welcomed the speed with which DHSC has consulted on the proposed legislation and that the legislation is likely to come into force in early February 2019, but work to address the practical issues associated with any introduction must now begin.

The practical issues are considerable and PSNC has sought to identify them here. They will continue to work closely with DHSC to ensure that the introduction of any SSP is practical for community pharmacy and that any costs incurred are recognised.

The introduction of SSPs also has implications for community pharmacy contractor’s Terms of Service, which PSNC will be discussing with the Department.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    News Stream

    This is our News Stream.  Any News stories that appear on our website will be archived here for your convenience in Chronological Order with Catogery  tags to help you find items you are looking for.   

    You can also use our search bar  to find items and our RSS feed on this page to keep informed of news. 

    RSS Feed


    LPC Newsletter Archive

    Copies of our older Paper Based News Letters (The LPC News) can be found by clicking below.

    Picture
    LPC News Letter Archive

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    March 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012

    Categories

    All
    Action
    Alert
    Announcement
    Business
    Call To Action
    Campaign
    Category M
    Cd's
    Christmas
    Commisioning
    Concessions
    Consultation
    Contractual
    Controlled Drugs
    Council
    Cpaf
    Cpd
    Delivery
    Diabetes
    Drug Tariff
    Ehc
    Election
    Essential Services
    Event
    Finance
    First Contact Clinical
    Flu
    Funding
    Future
    Gateshead
    Gphc
    Guidance
    Health Checks
    Healthy Living Pharmacy
    HMRC
    Hope Winch
    Info
    Information Governance Ig
    INR
    Inspection
    IT
    Lecture
    Legislation
    Local Policy
    Lpn
    Lrc
    Medicines-management
    Meeting
    Mental Capacity Act
    Mental Health
    Mhra
    Mur
    Needle Exchange
    Nhs
    Nhs Contacts
    NHS Mail
    Nms
    North East Pharmacy Forum
    Palliative Care
    Payments
    Pharmacy Qualifications
    Politics
    Pre - Reg
    Prescription Charge
    Psnc
    Public Health
    Reacll
    Recall
    Resources
    RPS
    RPS Event
    Services
    Sexual Health
    Shared Care
    Smoking Cessation
    Standards
    Structure
    Students
    Substance Misuse
    Sunderland Uni
    Tax
    Training
    Up To Date
    Urgent Care
    Vaping

    RSS Feed

Gateshead & South Tyneside Local Pharmaceutical Committee 2016


Photos used under Creative Commons from USCPSC, GovInslee, NHSE, weisserstier, mjtmail (tiggy), RambergMediaImages, Brett Jordan