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This is our second bulletin in this series relating to the recent announcement on the agreement of the launch of a new national Pharmacy First Service as well as other changes to pharmacy funding and services. In our first bulletin we introduced the new national Pharmacy First Service. This second bulletin focuses on the expanded Pharmacy Contraception Service which was another change agreed as part of recovery plan negotiations.
This expanded service, which launches today (1st December 2023), enables community pharmacists to initiate oral contraception (OC), as well as continuing to provide ongoing management of OC that was initiated in general practice or a sexual health clinic.
- Pharmacies that have not yet signed up to provide the Pharmacy Contraception Service will need to provide the full, expanded service, e.g. initiation and ongoing management of OC, from the point of signing up/registering to provide the service.
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Pharmacies that signed up to provide the service before 1st December 2023, who are currently providing the Tier 1 Service, (ongoing management of OC), will have a period of time to transition to provide both elements of the service (initiation and ongoing management). They will need to declare that they agree to the terms and scope of the expanded service via the MYS portal. The deadline for this opt-in is 29th February 2024.
The updated service specification and PGDs for the expanded service (from 1st December 2023) are available here.
Note: the service specification and PGDs for pharmacies who registered for the service before 1st December 2023 and are currently providing the Tier 1 Service can be accessed here. These should be used until opting-in to provide the new extended service.
The Community Pharmacy England (CPE) Pharmacy Contraception Service webpage has been updated to reflect the changes and includes lots of useful resources for pharmacy owners and their teams.
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