Archives: Contractor Email

Dear Colleague
The final update concessionary prices was granted for October 2021:
DrugPack SizeConcessionary Price
Amisulpride 50mg tablets60£2.94
Celecoxib 100mg capsules60£1.68
Celecoxib 100mg capsules30£1.72
Chlorpromazine 25mg tablets28£10.74
Cyclizine 50mg/1ml solution for injection ampoules5£7.09
Enalapril 5mg tablets28£5.95
Enalapril 10mg tablets28£5.05
Lansoprazole 30mg orodispersible tablets28£5.17
Nitrofurantoin 50mg capsules30£10.49
Nortriptyline 10mg tablets100£1.99
Nortriptyline 25mg tablets100£2.07
Prednisolone 5mg soluble tablets30£10.35
Ropinirole 1mg tablets84£56.71
Topiramate 25mg tablets60£2.37
Topiramate 50mg tablets60£3.03
Topiramate 100mg tablets60£12.39
Trazodone 100mg capsules56£3.71
Trimethoprim 100mg tablets28£1.81

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

SUMMARY

  • Community Pharmacies contracted to provide COVID-19 Moderna vaccine booster doses are encouraged to proceed to vaccinate the patients eligible for this service.
  • Eligible patients:
    • Must present no earlier than six months after completion of the primary vaccine course (for most people this will be two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine) and
    • Must be frontline health and social care workers who operate in a ‘patient facing’ role and where relevant are in receipt of a letter from a qualifying body or
    • All patients who are 50 years of age and older.
  • The qualifying bodies for this service defined by the Department of Health are listed within the correspondence attached HERE.

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

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

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
Ask Your Pharmacist Week runs from 1-8 November 2021 and the theme is ‘Your local pharmacy can help’. The awareness week, an initiative by the National Pharmacy Association, is an opportunity to highlight the full range of services available through community pharmacy this autumn and winter, including Covid-19 vaccination, booster vaccines and the winter flu vaccination programme. This year there will also be a focus on the Pharmacy First service for everyday health conditions which launches on 1 November 2021.

CPNI will be supporting the Ask Your Pharmacist Week campaign with a range of communications including political engagement, social media activity and press features.

To help promote the awareness week, contractors are invited to share CPNI posts and add the attached card to their social media channels with the hashtag #AskYourPharmacist.

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

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF
GERARD GREENE
Chief Executive

Dear Colleague
To help promote the Community Pharmacy Flu Vaccination service, Contractors are invited to use the social media cards available HERE for those aged 50 and over and Health and Social Care Workers aged 16 and over. To raise greater awareness, you may want to consider tagging some of your local political representatives in the posts. Or you may have some patients who would be happy to have their photo taken whilst receiving their vaccine which can be shared, to again encourage uptake. This can work particularly well if they are a local personality such as someone from the sporting world.

The Public Health Agency (@publichealthni) regularly post information regarding the flu vaccination service, which you may also wish to share on your social media channels.

Posters are also available:

CPNI will continue to promote the service across all media, including a radio campaign which is currently running on local stations.

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

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF
GERARD GREENE
Chief Executive

Dear Contractor
What if you received the following message today: “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.
 
Cyberattacks on healthcare systems throughout the world (and on some systems very close to home) can lead to devastating consequences financially, reputationally and legally. Take a moment to consider 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.
 
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 are advised to:

  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:

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 continue to keep you updated on these matters.
Please bring this to the attention of your pharmacy team(s).

Pharmacy team(s) can keep updated via CPNI’s website.

Kind regards – Mike

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