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Welcome to Community Pharmacy Lincolnshire News

Welcome to our weekly newsletter.

In this week's email:

Chief Officer Update - inc AGM presentation slides and PQS update
Flu Vaccination Advanced Service Changes
Pandemic Delivery Service support for people told to self isolate by NHS Test and Trace extended until 31st March 2022
Public Consultation on Four Healthcare Services in Lincolnshire: 30th September to 23rd December

UPCOMING DEADLINES

CPCS IT Systems Provider Pays Model Webinar 14th October 7.00-8.00pm BOOK NOW

NHSE&I, with the support of PSNC, is planning to hold a webinar on the 14th of October, from 7.00-8.30pm, to help contractors prepare for the transfer of the cost of Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) IT solutions to them after the end of March 2022. NHSE&I has also published a switching guide that sets out the actions required to enable the move to the CPCS ‘provider pays’ model.
Register for this webinar and read the switching guide

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).
If you have additional queries about this please contact Daniel at PSNC directly: Daniel.Ah-Thion@psnc.org.uk

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.

Chief Officer Update

AGM 2021

It was great to meet some of you at the AGM on 23rd September. The event was well attended and the food was very good (particularly the huge chips), so a big thank you to Hazel our administrator for organising it for us. For those of you unable to attend, a report on the work of the Committee over the year is available to read on our website here, along with a copy of the draft accounts here, which were confirmed as final at the AGM on Thursday 23rd September.

After the main meeting, Dr Carl Deaney, a General Practitioner from Marsh Medical Practice in East Lindsey delivered an engaging, informative and enjoyable presentation on red flags, based around the 'Little Book of Red Flags' we provided to all contractors earlier in the year. We have passed our thanks to Carl, who has provided a copy of the slides which are available on our website here.

As we move into autumn and winter we will continue to support contractors both directly, via communications like this newsletter and providing support such as 'toolkits' to make your jobs easier, and indirectly, in our work within the Lincolnshire Healthcare system as it moves towards an Integrated Care System, ensuring the voice of pharmacy is heard. We will keep you updated on progress in this area on a regular basis.

All the best

Tracey

Dr Tracey Latham-Green BA (hons), MBA, PhD
Chief Officer
Community Pharmacy Lincolnshire
Tracey.Latham-Green@pharmacylincolnshire.org

PQS Updates

Aspiration payment window is now open
Check with your Head Office for guidance around claiming aspiration payments. The Aspiration payment window opened on 4^th October at 9am so contractors have until 11.59pm on 29th October 2021 to make a claim for this.
PSNC have published a news story highlighting this and will publish reminder communications throughout the claim period: PQS: The Aspiration payment window is now open : PSNC Main site

PharmOutcomes asthma referrals service
This service is now live and allows contractors to record patient details who have consented to be referred to their GP practice if they meet the criteria in the ‘Personalised asthma action plans and promoting spacer device use in children prescribed pressurised metered dose inhalers’ quality criterion, which is part of the Respiratory Domain. When this data is saved on PharmOutcomes, a referral will automatically be sent to the patient’s GP practice (if an NHSmail email address is held for that GP practice within PharmOutcomes).

PharmOutcomes PQS assessment framework
This is still being finalised PSNC will highlight when this is available.

Banding for PQS 2021/22
NHSBSA has published a spreadsheet detailing the banding that pharmacies have been put into for PQS 2021/22.

Further details on the above can be found in the news story: https://psnc.org.uk/our-news/pqs-a-few-updates/

Hypertension Case Finding Service Draft Specification
Further information can be found in the following news story. PSNC will be publishing a contractor Briefing with additional guidance, a Briefing to help the engagement of pharmacy team regarding the service and updating the main Hypertension Case-Finding page on the website shortly:
https://psnc.org.uk/our-news/hypertension-case-finding-service-specification-published/

Anticoagulant audit data can now be added to MYS
This was included in the newsletter last Friday from PSNC:
https://psnc.org.uk/our-news/pqs-anticoagulant-audit-data-can-now-be-added-to-mys/

Flu Vaccination Advanced Service Changes

Last Wednesday 29th September a change to the Flu Vaccination Advanced Service was announced, which, for this year, expands the cohorts of eligible patients to include the patient-facing staff of all four primary care contractors.

A revised service spec has been issued and the PGD and National Protocol are being updated and will be published shortly to allow this cohort of patients to be vaccinated.

Further information can be found in the following news story and we will be updating the main flu vac page on the website shortly:

https://psnc.org.uk/our-news/flu-vac-frontline-primary-care-staff-added-to-advanced-service/

The patient-facing requirement does mean DSP contractors and staff who have no face-to-face contact with patients are not eligible for vaccination within this new cohort.

Pandemic Delivery Service support for people told to self isolate by NHS Test and Trace extended until 31st March 2022

In case you missed this release by PSNC on 29th September:

Following a decision by the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) has confirmed a further extension of the period of commissioning of the Pandemic Delivery Service for people who have been notified of the need to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace; the service will now be commissioned until 11.59pm on 31st March 2022.

This means all pharmacies (excluding distance selling pharmacies) will be required to ensure those people who have been notified by NHS Test and Trace to self-isolate can receive their prescription medicines and appliances by home delivery during the ten-day self-isolation period if they are unable to arrange for medicines to be picked up.

This service is only available to people during their ten-day self-isolation period and who can provide their NHS Test and Trace Account ID when requesting the service (people are provided with a unique NHS Test and Trace Account ID, which is an 8-character mix of letters and numbers, when they are contacted by NHS Test and Trace). A record of the NHS Test and Trace Account ID reference number must be made and retained as part of the contractor’s delivery record.

The NHS Volunteer Responders Programme also remains active. All shielding, self-isolating and/or otherwise vulnerable patients can access this support by calling 0808 196 3646; this number should be provided to patients who could benefit from this support.

Read the NHSE&I announcement and additional guidance

Further detail on the service requirements can be found on the PSNC Pandemic Delivery Service hub page

Public Consultation on Future Healthcare in Lincolnshire: 30th September to 23rd December

Launch of public consultation on the future of four Lincolnshire NHS services

We have been asked to share details of a formal consultation exercise on the future of four NHS services, launched on 30th September by NHS Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

Consultation details

This 12-week public consultation runs from 30^th September – 23^rd December 2021 and is the CCG's biggest public consultation to date. It will enable people from across the county to have their say on how these services might be delivered in the future.

The services being consulted on are:

• Orthopaedic surgery across Lincolnshire
• Urgent and emergency care at Grantham and District Hospital
• Acute medical beds at Grantham and District Hospital
• Stroke services across Lincolnshire

As part of this consultation, the CCG will be sharing information on the above services, how they operate now, the challenges faced and our proposals for how they could be improved for benefit of our staff and the population of Lincolnshire.

We want you to be aware of this consultation and provide you with the necessary information to engage and involve you in this conversation, as well as enable you to signpost others as required – so that together we can shape what the future of these services look like.

Everyone is encouraged to share their views using the consultation questionnaire. We will be hosting a number of public events around the county throughout the 12 weeks. These events include public meetings, virtual meetings, marketplace meet-ups and website events. In addition, our website and social media pages will be sharing information throughout the consultation.

Full details about the public consultation, the service review process and proposals, and all the ways to get involved can be found on the Lincolnshire NHS website, from 2pm Thursday 30^th September here: https://www.lincolnshire.nhs.uk

If your, or someone you represent, has a question which is not answered on these pages, then please contact lccg.asr-enquiries@nhs.net or 01522 421860 Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm.

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