Archives: Contractor Email

Dear Contractor,
SPPG issued correspondence today in relation to Community Pharmacy Medicines Adherence Services.

SUMMARY

Medicines Adherence Services 2022/23

  • £22m funding has been secured for community pharmacy adherence services in 2022/23. This includes the additional £10.976m that is being allocated using the MAST methodology.
  • Payment associated with cohort 3 patients (via ARF) has now been suspended.
  • £8.232m (of the £10.976m) has been released with the January BSO payment to reflect 9 months of activity from April to December 2022. This will be shown on your January remittance advice as “Adherence Service 2022/23 – additional funding”.
  • A further allocation of £0.915m will be made with the February payment to reflect activity in January 2023.
  • In order to provide DoH with the necessary assurance in relation to this payment the declaration form must be completed and returned to your local SPPG Primary Care office by Friday 17th February 2023.
  • A transitional service specification has been released for February and March 2023. This is in addition to the existing cohort 3 specification that was issued in July 2022.
  • The remainder of the funding (£1.829m) will be allocated using the same payment methodology and will be dependent on delivery of the transitional service for the remainder of this financial year.
  • All community pharmacy contractors must hold a contract with SPPG for provision of this service. A signed copy must be returned to your local SPPG Primary Care office by email by Friday 17th February 2023.
  • Pharmacies are required to complete and submit a monthly monitoring form to the local SPPG Primary Care office.  This should be submitted before the end of the first week of the month relating to service provision for the previous month.  In the event where SPPG cannot assure service provision by a pharmacy, or where there is a failure to submit monitoring information, recovery of the payment will be sought.

Medicines Adherence Services 2023/24

  • SPPG and CPNI are now working towards the service specification that will be commissioned from 1st April 2023 onwards.
  • This is currently subject to wider funding constraints and may require prioritisation of patients subject to need.
  • A review of multiple dispensing fees will be taken forward as part of the 2023/24 service with the aim of instalment dispensing being used only for medicines at risk of misuse/abuse.

ACTION REQUIRED

  • Read the correspondence that was issued today by SPPG.
  • Return the declaration form by Friday 17th February 2023 to your local SPPG office to provide assurance on the service and funding covering from April 2022 to January 2023.
  • Read the service specification and share with relevant members of your pharmacy team.
  • Return the contract by Friday 17th February 2023 to your local SPPG office to inidcate service provision for February and March 2023.
  • Return the monthly monitoring form for February and March 2023 to the local SPPG office by the end of first week of the following month. (February monitoring form should be submitted by the end of the first week in March and March monitoring form should be submitted by the end of the first week in April). This will enable the adherence funding to be released for the remainder of the financial year.  Note: The monthly monitoring form only requires details of NEW patients who have been commenced on adherence support in the month to which the form relates. All other patients who receive adherence support should be included within the field at the bottom of the form “Total number of eligible patients provided with adherence support this month”. E.g. you may have 100 existing patients and 5 new patients in February: you would list the details of the 5 new patients on the form and insert “105” in the total patients box at the bottom.

This is a transitional arrangement until 31st March 2023 and CPNI will be working closely with SPPG and DoH colleagues over the coming weeks to define the service from 1st April 2023 onwards.

Please do not hesitate to contact the CPNI office if you require any further information.

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF 
GERARD GREENE
Chief Executive
Dear Colleague
The final update of concessionary prices were granted today for January 2023:
DrugPack SizeConcessionary Price
Amiloride 5mg tablets28£12.59
Amoxicillin 250mg/5ml oral suspension sugar free100£3.34
Baclofen 5mg/5ml oral solution sugar free300£4.87
Benzoyl peroxide 5% / Clindamycin 1% gel30£10.56
Brinzolamide 10mg/ml eye drops5£4.87
Clarithromycin 250mg tablets14£4.18
Clonidine 25microgram tablets112£21.56
Co-amoxiclav 250mg/62mg/5ml oral suspension
sugar free		100£3.67
Co-amoxiclav 500mg/125mg tablets21£6.96
Co-careldopa 25mg/100mg tablets100£7.66
Co-trimoxazole 80mg/400mg tablets28£2.58
Donepezil 5mg orodispersible tablets sugar free28£47.64
Duloxetine 60mg gastro-resistant capsules28£3.40
Ezetimibe 10mg tablets28£1.74
Flucloxacillin 125mg/5ml oral solution100£3.84
Flucloxacillin 125mg/5ml oral solution sugar free100£3.84
Fluoxetine 20mg capsules30£2.14
Fluoxetine 20mg/5ml oral solution70£14.30
Ibandronic acid 150mg tablets1£2.01
Ivabradine 2.5mg tablets56£21.98
Lofepramine 70mg tablets56£13.46
Metronidazole 400mg tablets21£1.64
Miconazole 2% cream30£2.51
Mometasone 0.1% cream30£4.06
Naftidrofuryl 100mg capsules84£10.69
Nitrofurantoin 50mg tablets28£11.65
Ondansetron 4mg tablets10£3.08
Paracetamol 250mg/5ml oral suspension
sugar free		200£10.29
Phenoxymethylpenicillin 125mg/5ml oral solution100£8.50
Phenoxymethylpenicillin 125mg/5ml oral solution
sugar free		100£8.50
Phenoxymethylpenicillin 250mg/5ml oral solution100£9.00
Phenoxymethylpenicillin 250mg/5ml oral solution
sugar free		100£9.00
Pramipexole 180microgram tablets30£6.54
Pramipexole 88microgram tablets30£2.22
Rabeprazole 10mg gastro-resistant tablets28£4.79
Ramipril 10mg tablets28£1.21
Risperidone 500microgram tablets20£4.17
Tacrolimus 0.1% ointment30£20.61
Telmisartan 40mg tablets28£3.11
Temazepam 20mg tablets28£27.60
Tolterodine 1mg tablets56£2.84
Tolterodine 2mg tablets56£5.29
Topiramate 100mg tablets60£21.87
Yellow soft paraffin solid500£28.77
Zolmitriptan 2.5mg tablets12£24.55
Zolmitriptan 2.5mg tablets6£12.27
Concessionary prices will be paid against the usual code, no additional endorsements are needed.
Please continue to notify CPNI of any pricing issues you are experiencing via our new Medicine Shortage Reporter.

Concessionary prices are also published on the CPNI website.

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF
GERARD GREENE

Chief Executive
Dear Contractor
The Northern Ireland Regional Cyber Protect Officer, Cyber Crime Centre has notified CPNI of a new National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) service which is being rolled out for testing with partners, and from which he feels many contractors would benefit.
 
The Basic Check Service from NCSC is a free government service designed to help organisations check for common cyber vulnerabilities. The service will be officially launched later this quarter but is open for use at present with partners with whom the Cyber Crime Centre works.
 
At present the service will facilitate a:

Check of your IP address
Check of your web browser

This short list of services will increase as new and existing NCSC services are brought on board such as email security and website checking.
 
One of the great things about this easy to use service is that is requires no sign up and in most instances no input from the user apart from indicating what check you wish to make and hitting Start Now and Continue prompts.
 
In the case of the IP check, the service tells you what your IP address is, explains what an IP address is, and outlines how a criminal can use it. The service then checks to see which potentially vulnerable services the user is exposing to the Internet which should stimulate action being taken to secure the system.
 
The second function will check if your web browser is out of date and vulnerable to exploitation by criminals

Contractors can access the Basic Check Service by visiting HERE.
 
While designed to be easy to use, should anyone have any thoughts on how the user experience could be improved you can send these to cyberprotect@psni.police.uk

ACTION

Contractors are advised to:

  • Utilise this service via the link provided

Kind regards – Mike

SENT ON BEHALF OF
PROF MIKE MAWHINNEY
Head of Regulatory Affairs 

Dear Colleague
The fourth update of concessionary prices were granted today for January 2023:
DrugPack SizeConcessionary Price
Bumetanide 1mg/5ml oral solution sugar free150£235.00
Dutasteride 500microgram capsules30£2.95
Fluoxetine 40mg capsules30£2.76
Lamotrigine 5mg dispersible tablets sugar free28£10.05
Lisinopril 5mg/5ml oral solution sugar free150£198.00
Meloxicam 7.5mg tablets30£1.65
Nadolol 80mg tablets28£9.00
Pilocarpine hydrochloride 2% eye drops10£28.46
Terbinafine 1% cream15£3.24
Terbinafine 1% cream30£3.86
Concessionary prices will be paid against the usual code, no additional endorsements are needed.
Please continue to notify CPNI of any pricing issues you are experiencing via our new Medicine Shortage Reporter.

Concessionary prices are also published on the CPNI website.

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF
GERARD GREENE

Chief Executive
Dear Contractor,
Further to the Contractor Update on 16 January 2023 I write to update you as follows:
  • CPNI continues to meet with SPPG and DoH(NI) to progress several aspects associated with Adherence service provision in 2022/23 and 2023/24. It is envisaged that the Service Specification for 2022/23 will be finalised by SPPG for issue to community pharmacies this week. You will be asked to review the documentation in conjunction with your staff when it is received, returning any signed documentation required to the relevant local SPPG offices.
  • BSO will commence payment of the additional £10.976m for 2022/23 Adherence Service provision as follows:
    • £8.232m will be distributed and paid by BSO to the pharmacy(-ies) you operate on 31 January 2023. The allocation will be made using the Medicines Adherence Support Transition methodology, similar to that used by BSO to distribute £8m to contractors at the end of 2021/22.
    • £0.914m will similarly be distributed and paid monthly by BSO to contractors at the end of February, March and April 2023. This will complete the total payment of £10.976m to contractors for the 2022/23 year.
  • As per the attached SPPG letter dated 25 January 2023 the Advance reclaim will be paused, and therefore no reclaims will be applied to your BSO payments at the end of January, February or March 2023. The Advance reclaim will resume again at the end of April 2023.

Please do not hesitate to contact CPNI offices should you require any additional information.

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF 
GERARD GREENE
Chief Executive
Dear Colleague
As you may be aware, SPPG issued correspondence on Monday 23 January to those pharmacies providing the Regional Stop Smoking Service.

SUMMARY

The letter includes important updates in relation to:

  • The rolling forward of the “Stop Smoking” service contract due to be returned to the PHA today, Monday 30 January 2023.
  • Information on replacing Carbon Monoxide monitors used to provide the service.

ACTION

Contractors are asked to note:

  • The contents of the letter and bring it to the attention of relevant staff

For queries in relation to the service please contact your PHA local Tobacco coordinator. Queries may also be directed to a member of the CPNI team.

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF
Gerard Greene
Chief Executive