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GP Referrals to CPCS
The LPC has just received the December CPCS figures and I thought I'd share a few key points with you:
Referral Numbers for South Staffs - 388
Referrals not accepted and dealt with by pharmacy contractors - 14
Urgent Referrals back to the GP - 29 or 7.5%
In addition, there was 1 urgent referral to A&E, 1 to 111 and 3 to an NHS walk-in centre.
For your information also - the following item was published just before Christmas in an NHS England Primary Care Bulletin:
"We are aware that some GP practices are informally directing patients to community pharmacies in order to prioritise delivery of COVID booster vaccinations rather than make a referral to CPCS for the minor illness symptoms covered by the service. The CPCS provides direct access to a pharmacist clinical consultation and will enable the pharmacy team to prioritise the work of the pharmacist to be free to see the patient that day or at another appropriate time agreed directly with the patient. This is a very busy time for both community pharmacy and general practice, and we recognise that everyone is trying to do their very best for patients.
However, informal referrals into community pharmacy may result in some patients not accessing the care they need and prevents pharmacy teams from identifying patients that need to directly speak to the pharmacist at this very busy time. We would like to remind GP practices that referrals to community pharmacy for minor illness should be made to CPCS via the locally agreed electronic referral route."
If you hear of local practices using informal referrals to pharmacy for minor illnesses, please let the LPC know as we are actively involved in supporting practices getting live with referrals to CPCS, alongside CCG colleagues - thank you.
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