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Welcome to Community Pharmacy Lincolnshire News

Welcome to our weekly newsletter.

In this week's email:

CPAF screening process OPEN NOW - priority completion of short questionnaire strongly recommended
Hazardous Clinical Waste Management including Covid-19 waste
Changes to CPCS Service Specification re IT system requirements - Please check you have completed the process, particularly if you are an independent contractor.

UPCOMING DEADLINES

CPAF Questionnaire - Early Completion Advised - deadline 31st August 2022 - preparation required

The 2022/23 Community Pharmacy Assurance Framework (CPAF) screening questionnaire is now available for completion. Priority completion of short, screening questionnaire is highly recommended. Contractors are advised to prepare by reading the PSNC briefing and the questions on the NHSBSA website. Last time the questionnaire completion was required, if contractors did not complete the short questionnaire a longer questionnaire was then sent which took much more time to complete. We therefore highly recommend that you complete the questionnaire as soon as you are able to do so.

30th September 2022 - GPhC temporary register to close. Click here for more information

1st October 2022 - GPhC reinstating full revalidation requirements for registrants with new standards for the reflective account

As GPhC announced on 23 March 2022, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who are due to renew their registration on or after 1 October 2022 will need to submit all six revalidation records and when writing their reflective account, pharmacy professionals are expected to reflect on one or more of the three standards, selected by the Council from the Standards for pharmacy professionals. More information can be found here: New standards for the reflective account from October 2022 | General Pharmaceutical Council (pharmacyregulation.org)

IMPORTANT REMINDER: Changes to Monthly Service Transitional Payments Qualification - The requirement to do one NMS per month and be signed up for CPCS from January 2022

From 1 January 2022 pharmacy contractors who dispense 101 prescription items or more in any month will receive a monthly Transitional Payment which consists of two separate payments For the pharmacy contractors to receive the monthly service payment of the transitional payment they must have claimed for at least one New Medicine Service (NMS) in the previous month and been registered to provide the Community Pharmacy Consultation Service (CPCS) on the Manage Your Service (MYS) platform for greater than or equal to half of the number of full days in the previous month. In our 20th January 2022 newsletter here we covered this in more detail.

CPAF screening process now started - early completion of short questionnaire strongly advised

Priority completion of short, screening questionnaire is highly recommended. Contractors are advised to prepare by reading the PSNC briefing and the questions on the NHSBSA website.

The 2022/23 Community Pharmacy Assurance Framework (CPAF) screening questionnaireis now available for completion until midnight on Wednesday 31st August 2022.

Last time the questionnaire completion was required, if contractors did not complete the short questionnaire a longer questionnaire was then sent which took much more time to complete. We therefore highly recommend that you diarise and complete the questionnaire as soon as you are able to on or after 18th July 2022.

The short screening questionnaire consists of 10 questions. Contractors who use the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) Manage Your Service (MYS) portal will be required to complete the questionnaire on the portal. Contractors who are not yet signed up to MYS will be able to complete the questionnaire online. The questions have been published on the NHSBSA website ahead of the 18th July 2022 go-live date to give contractors advance notice of these. PSNC has published a Briefing to provide guidance on the screening process. Read the briefing

Community pharmacies should receive information and instructions on how to complete the screening questionnaire either via email from the NHSBSA or from their own Head Office. Contractors are advised to contact NHSBSA by emailing nhsbsa.cpaf@nhs.net if they have not received details of the questionnaire by Tuesday 19th July 2022, or if they have any problems or queries completing the questionnaire.

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 the screening questionnaire and, if required, the full CPAF questionnaire. Once the screening questionnaires have been completed, NHS England will then select a small number of pharmacies for a monitoring visit and/or to complete the full CPAF questionnaire.

Hazardous Clinical Waste Management including Covid-19 waste

Just in case you missed the email below. A number of Lincolnshire Pharmacies have not registered on the portal - please check if you need to do so or if you have alternative arrangements in place, with your relevant organisational contacts.

EMAIL SUBJECT: HAZARDOUS/CLINICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT (INCLUDING COVID-19 WASTE)

DEAR COLLEAGUE (YOU HAVE BEEN BLIND COPIED INTO THIS EMAIL)

FOR CLINICAL WASTE IN ALL COMMUNITY PHARMACIES AND GP PRACTICES IN THE MIDLANDS REGION (INCLUDING COVID-19 VACCINATION WASTE)

Following on from our previous correspondence, please be advised that as of 1^st April 2022, all clinical waste collections associated with covid-19 vaccinations must now be processed in line with the arrangements that you currently have in place with the provider that collects your pharmacy’s and GP’s routine clinical waste.

If you are operating your vaccination centre from an external site and have a separate arrangement in place, then you must cancel this and contact your routine provider to arrange for this waste to also be picked up by them. Anenta can help you with this and will contact your incumbent provider if required.

Please note that Anenta now deal with all clinical waste queries on behalf of NHS England and NHS Improvement, and it is very important that you register with them if you have not already done so. The Pharmacy and GP teams at NHS England & Improvement Midlands will no longer deal with your queries regarding Clinical Waste.

Please see below the information and a reminder on how to register.
Please replace the contact details that you currently have for any Clinical Waste queries with the details below:

Telephone:	03301 222 143
Email:	support@anenta.com or open a service ticket within your online account at www.vector.anenta.com

What are the benefits of Anenta handling clinical waste queries?

Anenta will be a single point of contact for clinical waste issues for Community Pharmacies, GP practices, NHS England Commissioning teams and the Clinical Waste suppliers
Anenta will manage all contract related matters, operational and financial validations issues while working with all waste producers and contractors to improve compliance and efficiency levels.
Anenta will manage all queries with regards to clinical waste collection from Community Pharmacies and GP practice

What won’t Anenta be responsible for?

Anenta will not be responsible for collecting the waste from Community Pharmacy and GP sites as this will remain the function of your existing provider

What actions do I need to take?
Anenta operate an online system called “Vector” that will allow you to interact with them to make service requests, advise of deficiencies in the service, or to simply seek advice in a fully auditable manner. The system will also hold compliance documentation on your behalf and any other relevant communication, service level requirements and FAQ’s to assist you.

You must register your Community Pharmacy or GP Practice on the Anenta System by clicking here

What happens once I have registered with Vector?
Once complete you will: -

receive an immediate confirmation of completion to the email addressed entered in the form.
receive a subsequent email that will follow advising you that your online account with Anenta is available to access.
be required to set a password when creating your account, however once registered, future access will no longer require a password.
receive a further communication from Anenta to advise on any further steps and with details of service within the first 30 days of the account being registered

If you have any queries with regards to this communication, please email support@anenta.com

Changes to CPCS Service Specification re IT system requirements - Please check you have completed the process, especially independent contractors.

NHSE have advised us that some pharmacies have still not completed the required process relating to changes to the CPCS service provision. Having telephoned some contractors highlighted, it seems that the correspondence with PharmOutcomes to confirm intentions to stay with them as a provider may not have filtered through to NHSE records, particularly if you are an Independent Pharmacy.

The specification was updated to include the requirements around contractors choosing an approved IT system. I have included a link to the specification below in case you need it. Changes/additions are marked in yellow.

B1538_NHS-community-pharmacist-consultation-service-v2.pdf (england.nhs.uk)

This should have been done by the end of February this year but it is imperative that you follow the relevant process for your decision asap. If you want to stay with PharmOutcomes you need to:

“Contact existing IT provider to confirm intention to stay. Contractors should confirm their intention to stay with their existing IT provider before 28 Feb 22 at the latest to maintain service continuity

Existing IT supplier will confirm new service agreement with contractor”

It may be worth contacting your existing provider PharmOutcomes to reconfirm your intention to stay with them if you are an independent contractor, perhaps copying in info@pharmacylincolnshire.org and we can advise NHSE accordingly, making sure you include your pharmacy ODS Code.

As shown in the guidance at the link below on Page 6. Other options than staying with PharmOutcomes can also be found here.

Pharmacy contractor guide to CPCS IT provider switching v1.3.pdf (nhsbsa.nhs.uk)

Community Pharmacy Lincolnshire are continuing to update and refresh our website. Let us know if there are any specific things you'd like to see, You can email us at info@pharmacylincolnshire.org

Remember, you can also contact us using info@pharmacylincolnshire.org with any questions, queries or feedback you may have.

Lincolnshire Local Pharmaceutical Committee is the voice of NHS pharmacies in Lincolnshire. For further information about the work we do, contact chief.officer@pharmacylincolnshire.org or visit www.pharmacylincolnshire.org

Copyright © 2022 Community Pharmacy Lincolnshire, All rights reserved.

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