Archives: Contractor Email

Dear Colleague,

Yesterday’s meeting with the Health Minister and senior DoH(NI) officials will result in some additional funding being made available to community pharmacy contractors during the remainder of 2023/24. This will amount to c£10.1m. This is comprised of £6.1m associated with the annual uplift to the dispensing fee budget for 2023/24 and a further £4m support payment associated with medicines supply.

Approximately 5/6th of this funding (for the period Apr’23 – Jan’24) is being fast-tracked for inclusion in the BSO payment on 29th February 2024; this is a direct consequence of the representations made by contractors and CPNI to the Health Minister, elected representatives and officials following the contractor meeting on 6th February 2024.

£10.1m, while significant and helpful, does however fall significantly short of what is required to stabilise the community pharmacy service in 2023/24 and beyond.

A contractor meeting will be held next Wednesday evening to provide contractors with further information on the meeting with the Health Minister, on-going community pharmacy funding concerns and next steps.

Details for next week’s contractor meeting, which will be held in Belfast, will be provided in due course.

Please do not hesitate to contact CPNI offices should you require further information in the meantime.

Yours sincerely,

SENT ON BEHALF OF
GERARD GREENE
Chief Executive
Dear Contractor
The survey for the Living Well campaign ‘Take 5 Steps to Wellbeing’ is due to close at 6pm on 1st March 2024.

SUMMARY

  • The survey for the campaign ‘Take 5 Steps to Wellbeing’ can be accessed here
  • Living Well information and resources on the current campaign ‘Know Your Units’ can be accessed here.

ACTION

  • Contractors who provide the Living Well Service and have yet to complete the online survey for the campaign ‘Take 5 Steps to Wellbeing’ can access the survey here.
  • Please ensure the survey is completed by 6pm on 1st March 2024
  • In the event that a survey is not completed, SPPG may seek to recover all, or part of, the associated funding via an adjustment to the pharmacy’s BSO payment account.

Please be aware from 1st December 2023 to 31st March 2024 a quality assurance pilot on the Living Well service is being undertaken by SPPG. Further information can be accessed from the letter issued by SPPG on 6th November 2023.

For any further information please contact CPNI offices.

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF
GERARD GREENE
Chief Executive
Dear Contractor
The following communication was issued 16th February 2024 by SPPG to those pharmacies involved in the Community Pharmacy Care Home Support Service (CPCHSS).  

SUMMARY

  • A requirement for the Community Care Home Support Service is to complete two care home visits each financial year.
  • The second care home visit is due to be completed by the end of March 2024.
  • SPPG have recently introduced a process for partial recuperation of payments made to community pharmacists who are contracted to provide the service but have not completed the required visits in line with service specification.
  • SPPG will be in contact in early April to seek confirmation and dates of the visits completed for 23/24.

ACTION

  • Contractors should read the correspondence issued by SPPG 16th February 2024.
  • Any pharmacy yet to complete the second required care home visit should organise a date before the end of March 2024.
  • Please share this information with all relevant members of the team.

If you have any queries in relation to this service please contact Breege Brogan Breege.Brogan@hscni.net or Gillian Plant Gillian.Plant@hscni.net.

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF
GERARD GREENE
Chief Executive
This update contains important information for community pharmacy teams.

CPNI ALERTS

DOH(NI) ALERTS

BSO ALERTS

Pharmacy team(s) can keep updated via CPNI’s Contractor Calendar and Contractor Emails.
Or report medicine shortages, pricing and staffing issues via CPNI’s Medicine Shortage Reporter and Situation Reporter.
Please bring this to the attention of your pharmacy team(s).

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF
Gerard Greene
Chief Executive
Dear Colleague
The second update of concessionary prices were granted today for February 2024:
DrugPack SizeConcessionary Price
Amiloride 5mg tablets28£15.59
Amoxicillin 250mg/5ml oral suspension100£2.49
Betahistine 16mg tablets84£8.50
Betahistine 8mg tablets84£4.30
Betamethasone valerate 0.1% cream100£5.39
Calcipotriol 0.005% / Betamethasone dipropionate 0.05% ointment30£12.12
Clotrimazole 500mg pessaries1£9.56
Co-codamol 15mg/500mg tablets100£3.28
Dexamfetamine 5mg tablets28£22.75
Digoxin 62.5microgram tablets28£2.78
Docusate 50mg/5ml oral solution sugar free300£17.08
Dorzolamide 20mg/ml / Timolol 5mg/ml eye drops 0.2ml unit dose preservative free60£25.03
Duloxetine 30mg gastro-resistant capsules28£2.90
Duloxetine 40mg gastro-resistant capsules56£11.25
Escitalopram 10mg tablets28£1.27
Estradiol 10microgram pessaries24£10.75
Ezetimibe 10mg tablets28£14.65
Haloperidol 5mg tablets28£3.95
Lamotrigine 50mg tablets56£2.79
Morphine sulfate 10mg/5ml oral solution300£5.45
Orlistat 120mg capsules84£23.45
Oxycodone 5mg/5ml oral solution sugar free250£9.71
Pregabalin 150mg capsules56£2.12
Pregabalin 225mg capsules56£2.35
Rasagiline 1mg tablets28£47.98
Risperidone 2mg tablets60£1.99
Ropinirole 500microgram tablets28£15.75
Simvastatin 20mg tablets28£1.10
Sulpiride 200mg tablets30£3.20
Terbinafine 1% cream15£3.54
Terbinafine 1% cream30£6.55
Trazodone 150mg tablets28£2.18
Zolmitriptan 2.5mg tablets6£16.45
Zolmitriptan 2.5mg tablets12£32.90
Zopiclone 3.75mg tablets28£1.55
Zopiclone 7.5mg tablets28£1.56

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 Medicine Shortage Reporter.

Concessionary prices are also published on the CPNI website.

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF
GERARD GREENE
Chief Executive

Dear Contractor

We wrote to you on 11 December 2023 highlighting the UK-wide public consultation on Pharmacy Supervision which has been launched.  The consultation will end on 29 February 2024 and can be accessed using the following link.

The consultation sets out proposals to amend the Medicines Act 1968 and The Human Medicines Regulations 2012.  The proposals are to:

  • enable pharmacists to authorise pharmacy technicians to carry out, or supervise others carrying out, the preparation, assembly, dispensing, sale and supply of medicines;
  • allow pharmacy technicians to take primary responsibility for the preparation, assembly and dispensing of medicinal products in hospital aseptic facilities; and
  • enable pharmacists to authorise any member of the pharmacy team to hand out checked and bagged prescriptions in the absence of a pharmacist.

The first two proposals will not yet apply to Northern Ireland as Pharmacy Technicians are not currently a registered health profession here.  However, the Department of Health (NI) has established project structures to progress the regulation and registration of Pharmacy Technicians in Northern Ireland and make the necessary legislative changes to enable this.  Information on this project work can be found using the following link to the Pharmacy Technician Newsletter which will be updated by the Department on a quarterly basis.

The CPNI team is drafting a response to this consultation and is happy to take views from contractors (please send any comments to Ennis or myself at CPNI).  Contractors can also respond directly to the address given in the consultation documents.

The consultation closes on 29 February 2024.

Kind regards

Mike

SENT ON BEHALF OF
PROF MIKE MAWHINNEY
Head of Regulatory Affairs