Welcome to Community Pharmacy Lincolnshire News
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Welcome to our weekly newsletter.
In this week's email:
- Chair's Annual Report and Accounts, including voting form link for independent contractors
- PSNC PQS Webinar now available on demand
- REMINDER: Christmas non-bank holiday dates: changing supplementary hours by 25th September 2021
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UPCOMING DEADLINES
- Midnight Saturday 25th September 2021 - NHSE supplementary hours adjustment notification for Christmas 2021
Please see item in this newsletter re making adjustments to supplementary hours on non-bank holiday dates during the Christmas and New Year festive period this year on Sunday 26th December 2021, Saturday 1st January 2022 and Sunday 2nd January 2022.
- PQS Training requirements - staged but early as possible completion advised
PQS for 2021/22 has now commenced. PSNC have produced a range of resources which can be accessed at the PQS Hub page at https://psnc.org.uk/services-commissioning/pharmacy-quality-scheme/. If you choose to sign up for all domains, an amount of learning is required. Whilst the deadline for training completion is the date of declaration in February 2022, some training will be needed to both complete gateway requirements and deliver services. To assist with completion of this learning we have summarised the requirements in a table which can be accessed here. The summary table includes indicative timings and links to CPPE training resources. We recommend considering the timing of the learning carefully; for example early completion of the CPPE inhaler technique training will allow more time for completion of inhaler technique checks and 'catch-up' NMS as part of the respiratory domain.
- 31st December 2021 - PQS Flu Vaccination communication with PCN Community Pharmacy Lead 2021
Per the Sept Drug Tariff – Contractors must have engaged with the Pharmacy Primary Care Network Lead (Pharmacy PCN Lead) to communicate that they would like to be involved in increasing the uptake of flu vaccination to patients aged 65 and over for the 2021/22 influenza season. All communications between the contractor and Pharmacy PCN Leads must be completed by 31 December 2021. You can find contact details for your PCN Community Pharmacy Lead on our website here, where they are listed on a PCN basis.
- CPCS IT Systems Provider pays model Autumn 2021 (final deadline for transfer 31st March 2022)
NHSE&I funding for the two current CPCS IT systems (Sonar and PharmOutcomes) will cease at end of March 2022, with plans to move to a 'provider pays' model where community pharmacies would pay a small charge per completed consultation through the platform. Although this deadline is some time away, as planning and decision making is required, contractors are recommended to start considering which supplier they want to choose well in advance. From the autumn, contractors will be able to transition to their own contractual arrangements with one of the four assured IT providers (Cegedim, Sonar, PharmOutcomes and Positive Solutions). Find out more here.
If you have queries about this please contact Daniel at PSNC directly: Daniel.Ah-Thion@psnc.org.uk
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Chair's Annual Report and Accounts
The Chairs annual report of the work of the committee is available to read on our website here, along with a copy of the accounts here, which are due to be confirmed as final at the AGM this evening, Thursday 23rd September.
If you are an independent contractor not available to attend the AGM and SGM and you ahve not already done so, please could you vote on the accounts and proposed changes to the constitution outlined in the Special General Meeting Item in the blue box below. Voting forms for independent contractors can be found here and completed forms should be sent to info@pharmacylincolnshire.org. If you are not an independent contractor, please do not vote using these forms and instead refer to the policy of your umbrella organisation.
I look forward to seeing some of you at the AGM later.
Tracey
Dr Tracey Latham-Green, BA (hons), MBA, PhD
Chief Officer
Community Pharmacy Lincolnshire
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SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING ITEM
As noted above, this will also be a special meeting of contractors to amend the LPC Constitution to allow the Committee to delay the elections for LPC membership by one year. Currently Members Term of Office expire on 31st March 2022.
However, proposals for change about the future model of local and national contractor representation and support are likely to be put to a contractor vote within the next year. For this reason, the Committee considers that the elections should be delayed until later in the year when the new model of support has been determined by the sector. To achieve this, we propose to amend the Constitution of the Lincolnshire LPC (Community Pharmacy Lincolnshire) as follows:
Existing Clause – 13. Term of Office
• Subject to paragraphs 14 and 16, members of the Committee shall hold office from 1 April in the year of the election or appointment for a period of 4 years.
New Clause – 13. Term of Office
• Subject to paragraphs 14 and 16, members of the Committee shall hold office from 1 April in the year of the election or appointment for a period of 4 years. [Except that the term of office starting on 1 April 2022 shall be postponed until 1 April 2023 and current LPC members shall hold office for a period of 5 years.]
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PSNC PQS Webinar now available on demand
PSNC held a webinar to support contractors to take part in the 2021/22 PQS on Tuesday 14th September at 7.30pm. Rosie Taylor, Head of Service Development at PSNC, talked contractors through the new gateway criteria and domain requirements for the 2021/22 PQS. As well as describing the differences from the previous schemes, Rosie outlined the guidance and resources developed by PSNC, plus where to find further information and support.
For those contractors who were unable to attend or want to revisit the webinar, it is now available on-demand:
https://psnc.org.uk/our-news/pqs-2021-22-webinar-now-on-demand/
The slide pack can also be accessed at the link above.
Additional, useful PQS Links
PSNC have created a PQS webpage here where up to date information can be found. This page is regularly updated by PSNC.
In recent weeks we have circulated a training requirement summary table, including who needs to be trained, estimated completion times and links to training. This can be accessed here.
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Christmas non-bank holiday dates: changing supplementary hours by 25th September 2021
A reminder to contractors that the following dates are NOT bank holidays and therefore pharmacies would be expected to open for their agreed contractual hours.
Sunday 26th December 2021
Saturday 1st January 2022
Sunday 2nd January 2022
However, if you have supplementary hours on these days you may wish to vary these by notifying NHSE; to do so you must give NHSE 90 days’ notice so please ensure that this is done as soon as possible; the deadline for this is midnight on Saturday 25th September - which is just 9 days away. NHSE do not need to give permission for variation of supplementary hours if given 90 days’ notice.
If you have core hours on these days, you can apply to vary these but would usually be expected to move the core hours into other days in the same week to ensure that you maintain the required opening. If you wish to do this, you must apply to NHSE within the same timeline. However, it is likely that such applications will be refused, as this may affect planning of pharmaceutical services across the holiday period. NHSE must give permission for any variation of core hours, and have the right to refuse.
Please note that if your pharmacy has been directed to open on any of these dates (and you would not normally be open) you must make appropriate arrangements to open.
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