Please find attached information for the upcoming Virtual ECHO Session on Monday 22 March 2021 at 19:30-21:00.
Please find attached HERE information for how to register attendance. Please ensure any of your pharmacists providing the COVID vaccination service, and who have not previously registered for the Community Pharmacy ECHO sessions, do so in advance. Deadline for registration is 3pm.
Please find attached the Agenda including Zoom Meeting ID & Passcode ahead of the Session.
The topic of discussion will be ‘Community Pharmacy COVID Vaccination Service’.
SENT ON BEHALF OF VANESSA CHAMBERS Head of Policy and Development
Dear Contractor
You will be aware from previous CPNI updates that cyber incidents – such as account compromises, malware attacks and phishing – are experienced by businesses worldwide on a daily basis, with home working and the COVID crisis increasing the risk of attacks.
On 2 March 2021, Microsoft made public that sophisticated actors had attacked a number of Exchange servers. In response to this Microsoft released multiple security updates for affected servers. This does not affect Exchange Online (see details in this link). The updates were released ahead of the monthly update cycle because four of the seven vulnerabilities have been used in ongoing attacks. The security updates fix the vulnerabilities exploited in the attack.
A wide variety of threat actors are using automated tools to scan for Exchange servers where updates are not installed. The actors then install malicious software to servers identified as vulnerable. On 11 March it was reported that ransomware actors have also exploited these vulnerabilities, or made use of the installed malicious software, to install ransomware on a network.
ACTION
Contractors are advised to:
Note the details in the attached link and action as appropriate.
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.
Regards – Mike
SENT ON BEHALF OF Prof. Mike Mawhinney Head of Regulatory Affairs
This update contains important information for community pharmacy teams, including details of the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dear Colleague
In today’s update:
Weekly drug alerts, shortages information, serious shortage protocols and patient safety alerts.
Contractor updates on 1st concessionary prices, testing COVID-CPVS VMS and VBS. and ECHO session details.
HSCB updates on PPE for COVID-CPVS, EOI for UTI pilot and Living Well campaigns.
SENT ON BEHALF OF DR. GARETH C. GILVARY Governance & Support Pharmacist
March 2021 – 1st Update
Dear Colleague
The following concessionary prices have been granted for March 2021:
Drug
Pack Size
Concessionary Price
Chlorpromazine 50mg tablets
28
£19.95
Ciprofloxacin 500mg tablets
10
£3.11
Duloxetine 30mg gastro-resistant capsules
28
£1.82
Duloxetine 60mg gastro-resistant capsules
28
£3.18
Enalapril 10mg tablets
28
£5.99
Eplerenone 25mg tablets
28
£12.35
Esomeprazole 20mg gastro-resistant capsules
28
£3.67
Esomeprazole 20mg gastro-resistant tablets
28
£5.80
Esomeprazole 40mg gastro-resistant capsules
28
£3.85
Lamotrigine 100mg tablets
56
£5.90
Lamotrigine 25mg tablets
56
£2.30
Lamotrigine 50mg tablets
56
£4.50
Letrozole 2.5mg tablets
14
£2.25
Moxonidine 200microgram tablets
28
£9.59
Moxonidine 300microgram tablets
28
£5.95
Moxonidine 400microgram tablets
28
£7.00
Olmesartan medoxomil 10mg tablets
28
£9.95
Olmesartan medoxomil 20mg tablets
28
£12.29
Olmesartan medoxomil 40mg tablets
28
£15.95
Pregabalin 100mg capsules
84
£6.88
Pregabalin 25mg capsules
56
£2.15
Tamoxifen 20mg tablets
30
£8.20
Topiramate 25mg capsules
60
£22.18
This is the 1st update of concessionary prices for March 2021.
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.
Kinds regards, stay safe – Gareth
SENT ON BEHALF OFDR. GARETH C. GILVARY Governance & Support Pharmacist
Dear Colleague
Please find attached correspondence from Kathryn Turner, Pharmacy Lead HSCB regarding an update on readiness for Vaccine Management System (VMS) access.
ACTION
Contractors are asked to:
Test that they can access the VMS sign-in page and ensure there are no local system issues that would prevent access.
Confirm the VMS login was successful by emailing local office using secure emails.
If there are problems accessing the VMS other error messages appear, please contact BSO e-business team on 028 9536 3681 (Option 3, then Option 4) or by emailing ebusiness@hscni.net.
For any further queries please in relation to this service contact either:
Chris Blayney (chris.blayney@hscni.net) or
Greg Miller (greg.miller@hscni.net).
Please do not hesitate to contact CPNI offices should you require any additional information at this stage.
Kind regards
SENT ON BEHALF OF GERARD GREENE Chief Executive
Dear Colleague
I write to provide Contractors, who will be providing COVID-19 vaccination services, with further information on the online community pharmacy COVID-19 VBS that is being developed by SimplyBook.Me with input from CPNI.
CPNI Directors endorsed the SimplyBook.Me VBS at their Board meeting last week on Thursday 11 March 2021. This online vaccine appointment booking system will be tailored for use by patients and community pharmacy teams in Northern Ireland to help streamline and manage requests from the public for COVID-19 vaccination appointments at community pharmacies when the service commences.
Each pharmacy that chooses to use the SimplyBook.Me VBS will have an online booking calendar template prepared for the sole use of the pharmacy and the patients who choose to obtain the vaccine from the pharmacy. The VBS will also be pre-configured to capture all the information needed in the service specification to book a patient for a vaccination and to assist pharmacy staff in completing the vaccination information submission to the HSC Vaccine Management System. Patient information associated with bookings will only be known by the patient and the pharmacy, and the pharmacy head office where relevant, thus ensuring patient confidentiality requirements and associated data governance requirements are met.
CPNI will be liaising with developers in advance of the launch of the community pharmacy COVID-19 vaccination service to:
Finalise with SimplyBook.Me the community pharmacy VBS on behalf of those pharmacies who choose to use this tailored VBS.
Develop a public facing community pharmacy COVID-19 vaccination landing page to enable patients to navigate easily to the online vaccine booking system of their pharmacy of choice.
Further information, including examples illustrating the booking calendar appearance, the information that will be available to the pharmacy team and costings are available HERE. In addition to the single pharmacy VBS there is a Group option for 2+ pharmacies and this option may be of particular interest to those pharmacies where a ‘head-office’ function would be beneficial. Details of this and the costings for this option are also provided in the SimplyBook.Me VBS outline.
The next stage for Contractors is to look at the proposal, decide whether they wish to use the SimplyBook.Me VBS, and if so, return the Microsoft Excel pharmacy contact information form, available HERE to Gareth Gilvary at CPNI offices by 2pm Tuesday 16 March 2021 for each pharmacy that they wish to use the SimplyBook.Me VBS. CPNI will then provide the pharmacy contact details to SimplyBook.Me to enable an account to be set up for those pharmacy(-ies) and to enable the VBS template specific to each pharmacy to be designed. Contractors who wish to take out the Group option are asked to ensure that the relevant contact details for the Group operator are also provided.
It is anticipated that there will be significant interest from the public about the availability of appointments at community pharmacies for the COVID-19 vaccination when the service commences. The use of the SimplyBook.Me online and tailored community pharmacy VBS will enable pharmacy teams to manage the booking and appointment process in an efficient manner that should significantly reduce telephone & in-person enquiries to pharmacy staff.
ACTION
Contractors should login to the members section of the CPNI web-site to obtain more information on the CPNI recommended SimplyBook.Me online community pharmacy vaccine booking system HERE.
Contractors who wish to use the SimplyBook.Me VBS, either at an individual or group level, should complete and return the Microsoft Excel pharmacy contact form HERE and return it to ggilvary@communitypharmacyni.co.uk by 2pm Tuesday 16 March 2021.
The imminent commencement of the COVID-19 community pharmacy vaccination service is a positive development and the development of the SimplyBook.Me VBS should help pharmacy teams to manage bookings and appointments. Further specific information on the Community Pharmacy SimplyBook.Me VBS will be provided to you as the VBS is developed further, with general information on SimplyBook.Me systems available HERE.
Finally, I would like to remind Contractors who wish to provide the Community Pharmacy COVID-19 vaccination service to complete and sign the HSCB COVID CPVS 2021 Contract for each pharmacy location providing the service and ensure that it is returned to the relevant local HSCB office by Close of Play today, Monday 15 March 2021.
Please do not hesitate to contact CPNI offices should you require any additional information at this stage.
Kind regards
SENT ON BEHALF OFGERARD GREENE Chief Executive
WhatsApp Business Terms of Service can be found here and privacy policy hereUCA-NI Privacy Policy We take your privacy seriously and do not share or sell any personal details with third parties for commercial purposes. If you have any questions, please contact the CPNI office. You can withdraw your consent to be contacted at any time by calling 028 9069 0444 or by emailing info@communitypharmacyni.co.uk. CPNI Data Protection Policy and Data Retention policy can be found Click Here
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