Bulletin 1 -

Introduction to the New National Pharmacy First Service

Community Pharmacy & the Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care – Bulletin 1

You will by now be aware of the news of the launch of the new national (Advanced) Pharmacy First Service, which is expected to be launched 31st January 2024 (subject to IT systems being in place).

The announcement follows months of negotiations with Community Pharmacy England (CPE), the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England (NHSE) and represents an important strategic step for community pharmacy and the most significant financial investment for several years. To find out more about these negotiations see here.

Successful roll-out will help embed community pharmacy as a vital part of primary care and will once again prove that where a service is properly funded, community pharmacy can deliver.

What We Know So Far

The Pharmacy First Service will enable patients to visit pharmacies, as a first port of call, for greater help with a range of common health conditions. The service includes the following 7 new clinical pathways:

• Sinusitis
• Sore throat
• Earache
• Infected insect bite
• Impetigo
• Shingles
• Uncomplicated UTI in women

Once Pharmacy First is launched it will incorporate the current Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) and will include the following 3 elements:-

1. Pharmacy First (clinical pathways) – NEW element.

2. Pharmacy First (NHS referrals for minor illness) – previously named as CPCS/GP CPCS.

3. Pharmacy First (urgent repeat medicine supply) – previously named as CPCS.

The clinical pathways element of Pharmacy First will enable pharmacists to offer advice to patients and, where clinically appropriate, supply some POMs under Patient Group Directions.

The existing referral routes for the CPCS will apply to the new Pharmacy First Service and we will continue to work with our local GP practices, building on the great work already done in West Yorkshire to integrate GP CPCS into the system, to ensure that this formal referral pathway continues.

However, patients will also be able to self-refer to a pharmacy for the clinical pathway’s element (subject to the patient passing a clinically established gateway point in the relevant clinical pathway).

Funding for the Pharmacy First Service

• An Initial Fixed Payment of £2000 will be available to claim from 1st December 2023.

Pharmacies who sign up to provide the service from 1st December 2023 up to launch date, (expected 31st January 2024), will receive an initial fixed payment of £2000 to support preparation and planning for the new service. Note: this fee will be recovered from any pharmacies who do not deliver 5 clinical pathway consultations by 31 March 2024.

• Item of service fee for every Pharmacy First consultation claimed of £15.

As stated above, CPCS will be replaced by the new Pharmacy First Service with an increased item of service fee of £15 applying to all types of consultation provided under the new service.

• Ongoing Monthly Fixed Payments of £1000 for pharmacies who deliver the minimum number of consultations each month (from February 2024)

In addition to the £15 consultation fee, a monthly fixed payment of £1,000 will be paid to pharmacy owners who meet a minimum activity threshold of clinical pathways consultations as set out below):-

Other Funded Related Changes - Expansion of Existing Services

Whilst much of the negotiations centred around the arrangements for the new Pharmacy First service, there were a number of other changes agreed:

• The Pharmacy Contraception Service will be expanded from 1st December 2023 to include initiation of oral contraception. Both ongoing supply and initiation of supply will be combined into one service.

• The Hypertension Case-Finding Service will also re-launch on the 1st December 2023 with a focus on increased provision of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.

For both services, it will be possible to use the wider non-registered pharmacy team members where staff have the appropriate training, are competent to deliver the service, and where this is legally possible. We will send out additional information on these changes as soon as we know more (please ensure you are kept up-to-date with the latest news and information by signing up to receive the CPE newsletter AND the Community Pharmacy West Yorkshire newsletter).

Our Ask of Contractors

We will be encouraging all our pharmacies to sign up to deliver the Pharmacy First Service as soon as the service is open for registration and we urge all pharmacy owners to find out more by attending, (booking required), one of the CPE webinars next week on Monday 27th November at 7pm or Tuesday 28th November at 12:30pm.



We also ask that you please start to talk to your local practices and keep them updated about the forthcoming changes to CPCS. Pharmacy First will enable community pharmacists to supply more treatments for a wider range of conditions which is great news and will help practices even more with access but it’s important that they continue to send referrals to CPCS or Pharmacy First, (once the service is launched), as it can’t be predicted from initial symptoms which patient conditions will meet the criteria for one of the 7 new clinical pathways.



Good relationships between healthcare professionals will be a key factor to ensuring the service is a success and we would encourage that you actively engage with your local practices.

Guidance for Contractors

Please see the CPE briefings below.

• Briefing 029/23: Recovery Plan agreement – Summary and FAQs for pharmacy owners and LPCs

• Briefing 030/23: Funding for Pharmacy First, and other funding-related changes in the Recovery Plan deal

If you have any questions about this, please email info@cpwy.org.



Kind regards,

CPWY

Community Pharmacy West Yorkshire

www.cpwy.org

info@cpwy.org

0113 272 7560