Archives: Contractor Email

Dear Colleague

Please find correspondence HERE from Kathryn Turner, Pharmacy Lead HSCB.

SUMMARY

• On 22 March 2022 the Minister announced an additional funding of £8m into community pharmacy in 2021/22 in recognition of adherence services provided during that year. This equates to a total of £19m for adherence support in 2021/22.
• Further communication will be issued to contractors to advise on how this funding will be allocated to contactors in April 2022.
• An additional £4m of recurrent funding will be made available from April 2022 which would provide an enhanced opening position of £15m recurrent funding for adherence support and work will continue to progress with additional funding bids in year.
• The first phase will be the introduction of an Interim Community Pharmacy Medicines Adherence Service for hospital and intermediate care discharge patients (cohort 3) which is currently in development in collaboration with CPNI. The service specification will be shared with you in early April. You are not expected to take on new patients until this process is agreed.

ACTION

• Contractors are asked to review the correspondence.
• Prioritise the resumption of adherence service provision once arrangements are finalised as outlined above.
• Please do not hesitate to contact the CPNI office should you require any further information.

Kind regards

Dear Colleague

The final update of concessionary prices were granted for March 2022:

Drug	Pack Size	Concessionary Price
Fludroxycortide 4micrograms/square cm tape 7.5cm	20	£15.87
Fluoxetine 40mg capsules	30	£3.22
Ibandronic acid 50mg tablets	28	£128.63
Ipratropium bromide 500micrograms/2ml nebuliser liquid unit dose vials	20	£3.46
Losartan 100mg / Hydrochlorothiazide 25mg tablets	28	£12.54
Losartan 12.5mg tablets	28	£7.01
Losartan 50mg / Hydrochlorothiazide 12.5mg tablets	28	£3.58
Methocarbamol 750mg tablets	100	£9.54
Mometasone 0.1% cream	30g	£3.83
Montelukast 4mg granules sachets sugar free	28	£5.83
Rizatriptan 10mg tablets	3	£4.25
Solifenacin 10mg tablets	30	£1.95
Sulfasalazine 500mg gastro-resistant tablets	112	£37.86
Sulfasalazine 500mg tablets	112	£30.86
Tacrolimus 0.1% ointment	30g	£16.46
Valsartan 80mg capsules	28	£4.26

Concessionary prices will be paid against the usual code, no additional endorsements are needed.

Concessionary prices may be granted up until the end of the month so CPNI will notify you of any further concessionary prices as and when they are agreed.

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

Dear Colleague

All community pharmacists are invited to attend an ECHO training event Tuesday 5 April 2022 at 7.30pm to discuss the Panoramic Trial, Know Check Ask Campaign, Adherence Service Next Steps and Pharmacy Collect Service Next Steps. Zoom Meeting ID: 850 347 7122 Passcode: 5501 Further details are available in the letter of invite which can be accessed by clicking HERE.

Kind regards

Dear Colleague

Please find correspondence HERE from Kathryn Turner, Pharmacy Lead HSCB.

SUMMARY

• Following the JCVI announcement (21 February 2022) and DoH letter (25 March 2022), a Spring COVID-19 booster vaccination will be offered to the following individuals around 6 months after the date of their last booster vaccine dose:
  • Adults aged 75 years and over
  • Residents in a care home
  • Individuals aged 12 years and over who are immunosuppressed, as defined in the Green Book. However, the Community Pharmacy Vaccination Service is currently only available to individuals aged 18 years and above.

The service specification, PGD and other relevant documentation for the COVID-19 community pharmacy vaccination service are available on the COVID-19 CPVS webpage.

ACTION

• Contractors are asked to review the correspondence.
• Commence vaccination of adults aged 75 years and over and individuals aged 18 years and over who are immunosuppressed (with appropriate letter).
• Community pharmacies are asked to agree arrangements for vaccination clinics to be provided in the care home setting, where they are the local provider to the Care Home and they are a COVID-CPVS provider.
  • COVID-CPVS Community Pharmacies who are not the local provider to the Care Home may be approached by the care home management. These pharmacies are asked to agree arrangements for vaccination clinics to be provided in the care home setting.
  • Where a COVID-CPVS Community Pharmacy is not in a position to facilitate the request to provide vaccination clinics, the Care Home should be signposted to locate another provider via the interactive map.
  • If a Care Home provider is unable to secure arrangements for a COVID-CPVS Community Pharmacy to provide a clinic for their residents, they should be directed to the local HSCB office pharmacy adviser.
• If you have any queries please contact Deirdre McAree at deirdre.mcaree@hscni.net.
• Please do not hesitate to contact the CPNI office should you require any further information.

Kind regards

Dear Colleague

Please find correspondence HERE from Kathryn Turner, Pharmacy Lead HSCB.

SUMMARY

• The Pharmacy First Service for Winter Conditions 2021/22 will end on the 31 March 2022.
• All promotional material relating to the service, including information on websites and social media should now be removed.
• Final monthly activity forms should be emailed to local HSCB offices and Pharmacy Vouchers for the month of March 2022 should be submitted to BSO for payment with second prescription submission in April 2022.

ACTION

• Contractors are asked to review the correspondence.
• Please do not hesitate to contact the CPNI office should you require any further information.

Kind regards

Dear Colleague

“We are going to publish your pharmacy’s confidential patient data on the web” Take a moment to consider what you would do if you were informed by cyber criminals that they had accessed your pharmacy’s patient data and were intending to publish it, in full, on the web.  What you would do if your pharmacy IT system was compromised tonight, and tomorrow morning you could not access patient details, dispensing histories, statutory records, outstanding order details, ordering platforms, staff salary details, or your business bank account particulars. As highlighted in the regular CPNI contractor updates over the past 18 months, and as discussed at the recent contractors’ meeting, cyberattacks on healthcare systems throughout the world are increasing and are becoming more sophisticated.  Such attacks can have devastating consequences financially, reputationally and legally.  In respect of your pharmacy systems, you are at an increased risk if you do any of the following:

• Use a “free” email account
• Allow unfiltered access to websites from your system
• Use default passwords for all systems and staff
• Use the unsupported Windows 7 systems
• Have no or inadequate antivirus protection
• Lack a firewall
• Have an open Wi-Fi
• Fail to train your staff on how to recognise cyber-attacks

ACTION

Contractors should as a matter of priority:

1. Consider the above and to contact your IT and/or PMR system provider as a priority if your system is at risk of being compromised

Further helpful and easy-to-read guidance issued by the National Cyber Security Centre is available via the attached links:

• Cyber Security: Small Business Guide
• Cyber Security; Small Business Guide Actions

Contractors are reminded that the storage and back up of patient sensitive data and any amendments to your systems should only be carried out in line with advice from your IT or email supplier, PMR system provider and in line with Data Protection legislation.

CPNI colleagues will be happy to further advise on these matters.

Kind regards – Mike

SENT ON BEHALF OF
PROF. MIKE MAWHINNEY
Head of Regulatory Affairs