You will be aware from a previous Contractor Update (CPNI CU#231116A: Funding Difficulties and Category-M Drug Tariff Price Reductions [Oct’23]) that CPNI had an urgent meeting with the Permanent Secretary on Tuesday 21 November 2023. CPNI outlined the severe pressures facing the sector and the further impact that the October 2023 Drug Tariff changes would have on contractors going forward. The Permanent Secretary listened to our concerns and sought further information from us at the meeting on the issues we raised. CPNI had proposed to the Permanent Secretary that, in the absence of additional investment being available, funding elements should not be removed from the community pharmacy economy at this critical time. The Permanent Secretary agreed to consider our position and he subsequently wrote to CPNI.
CPNI Board held an emergency meeting yesterday afternoon to consider the Permanent Secretary’s letter and following an exchange of correspondence I can confirm that the deduction of clawback from contractor BSO payments has been suspended for two months with immediate effect. There will be no clawback deducted from the November 2023 or December 2023 BSO payments. BSO has confirmed that this equates to £2.379m for the month of November and it is expected that a similar quantum of funding will be retained by community pharmacies for the month of December. The Permanent Secretary also advised that SPPG will take forward proposals previously received to revise discount scale arrangements – CPNI had previously stated, and then again in correspondence to the Permanent Secretary this week, that it could not agree to the proposals.
The suspension of clawback, although only for two months, is a welcome intervention at this time and the Permanent Secretary’s role in that is acknowledged.
CPNI will continue to work with the Department to find further solutions that help with the development of community pharmacy in Northern Ireland.
Kind regards
SENT ON BEHALF OF GERARD GREENE Chief Executive
Dear Colleague
The second update of concessionary prices were granted today for November 2023:
Drug
Pack Size
Concessionary Price
Benzoyl peroxide 5% / Clindamycin 1% gel
60
£22.15
Clotrimazole 1% cream
50
£3.95
Co-codamol 15mg/500mg tablets
100
£2.83
Cyclizine 50mg/1ml solution for injection ampoules
The Police Service of Northern Ireland Cybercrime Unit has issued an alert in respect of Digital Skimming.
Details
Digital skimming is the action of stealing credit card information or payment card data from customers of an online store. The transaction data is intercepted during the online purchase checkout process without customers noticing anything unusual.
CPNI understands that not all contractors will be offering an online sales service, but for those that do, full details of how the scam is operated can be found here.
You can make it more difficult for cyber criminals by:
Using a malware monitor with web skimming-specific capabilities.
Ensuring MFA and strong password policies for staff.
Training your staff to deal with spearphishing attacks.
Running automated vulnerability audits on the ecommerce platform including installed third party components on a regular basis.
Ensuring that only specific IPs can access the control panel of your online system.
Ensuring timely installation of security patches and critical software updates.
Implementing Content Security Policy (CSP) and Subresource Integrity (SRI).
Action
Contractors are advised, where appropriate, to:
Inform staff of this new threat;
Note the steps to take if your system has been compromised;
Note the advice and guidance given above and on the CPNI website cybersecurity page in respect of steps that you can take to protect your data and your business; and
Contractors are also 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.
Kind regards
Mike
SENT ON BEHALF OF PROF MIKE MAWHINNEY Head of Regulatory Affairs
Dear Contractor
NICPLD have advised CPNI that they have issued an email and a survey link to pharmacists on their records who have successfully completed Independent Prescribing (IP) training. The survey aims to establish whether these IP pharmacists are currently working in a community pharmacy setting, and if so whether they may be interested in participating in a potential project based on utilising IP skills in the community pharmacy setting and linking with a GP surgery.
SUMMARY
The NICPLD survey has been issued to IPs in collaboration with SPPG.
NICPLD and SPPG are hoping to establish if there are IP pharmacists currently working in community pharmacies who may be interested in a pathfinder prescribing project.
The project is at very early scoping stages and therefore this is an initial enquiry.
Further details will be shared with respondents and their employers (pharmacy contractors) in due course.
While the details of the project are not yet fully designed, it is likely that the IP pharmacist in a participating pharmacy will establish a link with a local GP practice. Therefore respondents are asked to indicate if there are any practices with which they have strong professional collaborative links.
ACTION
Contractors may view the survey, and may wish to bring it to the attention of any IP pharmacists in their team.
Note: Community pharmacists who are not IPs and who are interested in the training can view the most up to date information on the NICPLD Website.
Please contact a member of the CPNI team should you have any queries.
Kind regards
SENT ON BEHALF OF GERARD GREENE Chief Executive
This update contains important information for community pharmacy teams.
The Public Health Agency (PHA) is encouraging the public to respond to the ‘Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping: your views’ consultation around creating a smoke-free generation and tackling youth vaping.
By participating the public will help influence and shape future policy around vapes and proposals to limit their availability and appeal to children.
You can access and respond to the consultation at www.pha.site/smokefreeconsultation. The consultation runs until 6 December 2023 at 11:59pm.
If you would like to share information about this consultation, the PHA will be issuing social media assets across their platforms over the coming weeks.
Please bring this to the attention of your pharmacy team(s).
Kind regards
SENT ON BEHALF OF Gerard Greene Chief Executive
Dear Contractor
SUMMARY
SPPG have issued correspondence today regarding Pharmacy First for EHC.
Almost 22,000 consultations for EHC have now been undertaken by community pharmacists since July 2022.
Service user feedback has been very positive.
Pharmacists are reminded to encourage women and young people to consider commencing bridging contraception.
The PGD for the supply of Ulipristal has been updated to reflect the National PGD (which has been updated line with the FSRH EHC guideline July 2023). The updated PGD has been added to BSO website and can be found here.
Please note, the “Cautions” section of the PGD now includes the following information: “Ulipristal is generally not recommended in a missed pill situation.”
It is important that all contracted pharmacies are able to provide the service to ensure equity of service provision across all parts of Northern Ireland. There are eighty pharmacies currently contracted to provide this service, that do not appear to have undertaken any consultations. If consultations have been undertaken in your pharmacy but never claimed for, please submit outstanding claims to your local SPPG office as soon as possible. If you do not wish to be a contracted provider please contact your local SPPG office and ask for your pharmacy to be removed from the list of service providers.
All of the available resources to support delivery of this service are available on the BSO website.
SPPG would like to hear from you if you have any feedback or recommendations that could improve delivery of this service. We would also like to know more about any interesting consultations that you have undertaken, particularly if there is learning that would be beneficial to share with all service providers. Please send information to siobhan.o’hare-smith@hscni.net.
ACTION
Please read the correspondence issued by SPPG and share with relevant members of your pharmacy team.
Please ensure that all pharmacists providing the service are aware of the change and that this latest version of the ulipristal PGD is now used. Please destroy printed copies of any previous versions.
Kind regards
SENT ON BEHALF OF GERARD 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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