Archives: Contractor Email

Dear Colleague
Thank you for expressing an interest in participating in “The Big Jab Weekend” planned for the 4 and 5 December 2021. If you would still like to express an interest, we would appreciate if you could complete this short survey HERE, which takes approximately 5 mins to complete.
 
We appreciate timelines are tight so we have two options available to those wishing to participate-you can choose to do one or both of these options:
  1. Increase the capacity of your in-pharmacy clinics on Saturday 4 December and/or Sunday 5 December – this may be through additional appointments, the option of walk-in appointments and the use of additional vaccinators (we are currently exploring the option of community pharmacies accessing the central HSC vaccinator pool for that weekend).
  2. Use of off-site premises to run vaccination clinics on Saturday 4 December and/or Sunday 5 December – you may wish to join with other pharmacies in your area to offer this. We have been seeking additional sites that may be used by pharmacies to run clinics. These need to be arranged on a local basis so if you wish to consider using off site locations please contact Katherine Kidd kkidd@communitypharmacyni.co.uk who will be able to advise further and put you in touch with the relevant local contact.

We are also working with HSCB to determine what resources can be made available to pharmacies participating in the “The Big Jab Weekend” and we will keep you updated accordingly.

The big focus will be on public messaging in the lead up to the big weekend and it is an excellent opportunity for community pharmacy to, once again, demonstrate the important role they are playing in the vaccination programme for Northern Ireland.

Please do not hesitate to contact CPNI Office on 028 9069 0444 for further advice or support.

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF
GERARD GREENE
Chief Executive

Dear Colleague
Please see HERE the press release issued by CPNI today following the decision by Contractors at last week’s contractor meeting to cease the provision of non-commissioned MDS/Compliance services to new patients from the 1 December 2021.
 
Please ensure that this is shared with your pharmacy team members in each pharmacy you operate. Pharmacy notices etc will be shared with you over the coming days to help your teams deal with any queries in relation to the cessation of this service from 1 December 2021.
 
Please do not hesitate to contact CPNI offices should you require any additional information.

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF
GERARD GREENE
Chief Executive

This update contains important information for community pharmacy teams, including details of the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

BSO ALERTS 

CPNI ALERTS 

HSCB ALERTS 

Please bring this to the attention of your pharmacy team(s).
Pharmacy team(s) can keep updated via CPNI’s Contractor Calendar or Contractor Emails.

Or report medicine shortages, pricing and staffing issues via the CPNI’s Medicine Shortage Reporter or Situation Reporter.

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF 
DR. GARETH C. GILVARY
Governance & Support Pharmacist
Dear Colleague
The first update concessionary prices was granted for November 2021:
DrugPack SizeConcessionary Price
Celecoxib 100mg capsules60£1.80
Celecoxib 200mg capsules30£1.75
Cinnarizine 15mg tablets84£3.97
Clomipramine 10mg capsules28£2.76
Clomipramine 25mg capsules28£4.85
Clomipramine 50mg capsules28£8.25
Enalapril 10mg tablets28£5.29
Enalapril 5mg tablets28£7.15
Fludrocortisone 100microgram tablets30£11.20
Lamotrigine 5mg dispersible tablets sugar free28£8.35
Lansoprazole 30mg orodispersible tablets28£5.18
Lercanidipine 10mg tablets28£2.99
Loratadine 5mg/5ml oral solution100£6.46
Methocarbamol 750mg tablets100£12.95
Naftidrofuryl 100mg capsules84£7.79
Nitrofurantoin 50mg capsules30£10.49
Orlistat 120mg capsules84£24.22
Pioglitazone 30mg tablets28£2.70
Pioglitazone 45mg tablets28£2.70
Timolol 0.5% eye drops5£3.77
Tolbutamide 500mg tablets28£25.75
Tolterodine 1mg tablets56£3.46
Tolterodine 2mg tablets56£4.82
Trazodone 50mg capsules84£3.45
Trimethoprim 50mg/5ml oral suspension sugar free100£10.75
Ursodeoxycholic acid 250mg capsules60£10.27

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

SENT ON BEHALF OF
DR. GARETH C. GILVARY
Governance & Support Pharmacist

Dear Colleague
Further to contractor update after the recent CPNI Contactor Update, I write to update you in relation to the HSCB Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) Consultation available here that closes on 30 November 2021.

Contractors will be aware of the significance of this HSCB PNA Consultation and the need for community pharmacy contractors to submit individual responses to the consultation.

In launching the HSCB PNA Consultation on 1 September 2021 HSCB stated that:
  • the aim of the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) was to carry out an assessment of current need for pharmaceutical services relative to the current levels of community pharmacy service provision across NI, taking various factors into account like patient demographics, geography, population health and socio-economic status. A key objective was to develop a tool that can be used to assess need and provision of pharmaceutical services in bespoke defined localities, and which could also facilitate benchmarking analysis.
  • The aim of the consultation is to seek views on the factors that have been identified and how these have been constructed within the model, to enable the establishment of pharmaceutical need within localities.

This is a detailed and complex consultation and, as you know, CPNI has engaged KPMG to carry out an independent assessment of the HSCB PNA Consultation.

KPMG has produced a report and a briefing document outlining their assessment of the Consultation and the PNA modelling tool being proposed by HSCB in the consultation. As outlined at the Contractor meeting KPMG has identified a number of significant issues within the PNA Consultation, these are contained in the report and they include:

  • Commissioned and non-commissioned services provided by community pharmacies outside of ordinary dispensing have not been considered in the PNA. This could underestimate the level of pharmaceutical need across the sector.
  • The PNA has not incorporated multiple dispensing into its modelling, which accounts for a significant portion of pharmaceutical need in the majority of community pharmacies in NI.
  • The PNA has not considered the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fundamental changes which have occurred in community pharmacy as a result.
  • The PNA does not account for the unique socio-economic circumstances which exist in NI.

CPNI shares these and other concerns identified by KPMG in relation to the HSCB PNA Consultation.

CPNI will be finalizing its response to the HSCB PNA Consultation w/c 22 November 2021 and we will share it with you so that you can consider the CPNI response when preparing your consultation response.

I want to re-emphasize the importance of contractors submitting their own response to the consultation HERE on or before the closing date of 30 November 2021.

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

I write to provide a summary of the contractor meeting held last night where the following two main topics were discussed:

  • Pressures associated with Compliance Support services and
  • HSCB Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment Consultation.

In relation to Compliance Support it was clear from last night’s discussions that without the appropriate investment, community pharmacists have serious concerns about their ability to continue providing this non-commissioned service, that is provided largely on a goodwill basis, in a safe manner. 

Taking into consideration the increased workload and workforce pressures that exist at present and the requirement to provide an increasing range of commissioned services including the safe supply of medicines, Pharmacy First, as well as the more recent additions of Flu and COVID-19 vaccinations services, a ballot was held at the meeting with contractors asked:

Do you support the action that the community pharmacy network will no longer provide Monitored Dosage Systems (MDS) or similar compliance aids to new patients from the 1 December 2021?

The result of the ballot was that over 97% (of those in attendance, both in person and virtually) supported the above action and agreed to no longer provide compliance aids to new patients from the 1 December 2021. The consensus of Contractors in attendance was that continuing to accept new patients whilst managing an already demanding workload, coupled with severe workforce shortages would put both patient safety and commissioned pharmacy services at risk

At the meeting, contractors signed a notification letter to Louise McMahon, Director of Primary Care at the Health and Social Care Board outlining their decision. I have attached a copy of this letter, HERE, which if you were in support of last night’s vote, I would ask if you could complete and either return it either to CPNI or submit it directly to the HSCB at your earliest convenience.

The vote of 97% of the contractors in attendance (both in person and virtually) to cease providing new patients with non-commissioned compliance aid services from 1 December 2021 wasn’t taken lightly but was deemed a necessary step to support and protect community pharmacists in fulfilling their obligations to safely provide commissioned pharmacy services and to protect patients.

Please do not hesitate to contact CPNI offices or your local CPNI Director should you require any additional information.

I will write to you separately in relation to the HSCB Pharmacy Needs Assessment Consultation.

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF
GERARD GREENE
Chief Executive