Our members (pharmacy owners) and their teams, have proved yet again, that they can deliver vital public health services at scale and pace, having administered over 5 million flu vaccinations under the national Flu Vaccination Service, a new record for the sector. The NHS Business Services Authority has published the Advanced Service Flu report which shows that
Read moreThe Government has today (June 15th) announced that all those aged 60 and over will remain eligible for exemption from the NHS prescription charge. Today’s announcement is the official response to a 2021 public consultation that recommended raising the free prescription threshold to meet the state pension age at age 66. As well as keeping
Read moreCommunity Pharmacy England has published new guidance to help members to complete the 2022/23 Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPTK). The Toolkit is used to make a pharmacy’s information governance (IG) declaration and the deadline is Friday 30th June 2023. We collaborated with the NHS DSPTK team to keep the workload associated with Toolkit completion manageable
Read moreDepartment of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has issued a medicine supply notification for Oxcarbazepine (Trileptal®) 300mg and 600mg tablets. MSN/2023/059 Tier 2 – medium impact Date of issue 14th June 2023 Oxcarbazepine (Trileptal®) 300mg tablets will be out of stock from late June 2023 until mid-July 2023. Oxcarbazepine (Trileptal®) 600mg tablets are out of
Read moreMirror Following the closure of 237 Lloyds pharmacies in Sainsbury’s stores this week, we provided temporary and permanent closures as well as a comment from our CEO to the Mirror. Chief Executive Janet Morrison, said: “Our analysis highlights a very worrying trend of pharmacy closures over the past few years. It is a stark indicator
Read moreWhich? Following news reports of Lloyds Pharmacy closing all of its Sainsbury’s branches this week, we have issued the following statement. Chief Executive Janet Morrison, said: “These closures are deeply worrying and one of the clearest signals yet of just how much community pharmacies are struggling to make ends meet. Pharmacies are being chronically underfunded,
Read moreNHS England is asking members (pharmacy owners) to continue to voluntarily submit New Medicine Service (NMS) quarterly summary data to the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) for Quarter 4 (Q4) 2022/23 (January to March 2023). The mandatory requirement to submit this data has been suspended since 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. NHS England want to continue
Read moreThe 2023/24 Community Pharmacy Assurance Framework (CPAF) screening questionnaire will be available for completion from approximately 1am on Monday 3rd July 2023 until midnight on Sunday 30th July 2023. As a result of NHS regulations introduced at the end of 2020, completion of CPAF is now a requirement of the Terms of Service. Therefore, contractors must complete
Read morePharmacy press The Parliamentary Select Committee on Health and Social Care launched a new inquiry looking at the future of community pharmacy. Steve Brine MP, Chair of the Committee, said “Pharmacy has a central role to play in the future of the NHS. With a greater focus on personalised and patient-centred healthcare, we will be asking
Read morePharmacy press Following reports that the number of medicines recalled by manufacturers due to defects has increased 153% in the UK since 2017, we were asked to comment on what this increase in medicines recalls means for pharmacy teams. Alastair Buxton, Director of NHS Services at Community Pharmacy England, said: “Medicine recalls are a vital
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