Welcome to Community Pharmacy Lincolnshire News

CPCS Referrals via PharmOutcomes and nhs.net: Please ensure they are completed.

We are mindful that contractors are busy at this time of year with vaccination season well underway. However, we have been advised that the number of CPCS referrals from both GPs and 111 not being completed has increased.

As an LPC we are working hard with the system to try and increase referrals into CPCS and increase the percentage of referrals that come directly into PharmOutcomes to make them easier for contractors to process.

Overall currently around 30% of the referrals received are not being completed, which means not only are contractors missing out on income but patients are being impacted and we risk other primary care colleagues losing confidence in referring to community pharmacy. This could negatively impact other inward referrals for service such as contraception Tier 1 and Hypertension Case Finding, both now and in future as a more integrated primary care system is developed.  It is vital we work with our colleagues across primary care effectively.

While we know you are extremely busy in store, please can you make sure you are regularly checking your store nhs.net mailbox and PharmOutcomes for CPCS referrals. It may also be useful to speak to your local GP surgeries and agree on a number of referrals that are achievable for your community pharmacy during this busy period.

Prescription savings campaign comms toolkit

The NHS have produced a prescription savings campaign comms toolkit to aid health professionals in helping patients reduce their costs where possible.

Prescribing data from NHS BSA shows that people living in the most deprived parts of England receive significantly more prescription items than those living in less deprived areas. 

A Healthwatch poll also found that one in ten (10%) people have avoided taking up one or more NHS prescriptions because of the cost, due to the cost of living crisis.

The campaign aims to raise awareness of the two prescription money saving schemes available to patients:

• The Prescription Prepayment Certificate, and
• The Low Income Scheme

Patients with long term conditions could save money on their prescriptions. A Prescription Prepayment Certificate will save people money if they pay for more than 3 items in 3 months, or 11 items in 12 months.

Remind patients to check their eligibility at www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/ppc.  

The full toolkit can be found here.

Pharmacies Of Tomorrow: Community Pharmacy Vision and Local Community Pharmacy Strategy Engagement

Contractors should have seen the launch of the 'Pharmacies of Tomorrow' vision for community pharmacy, released on Tuesday 19th September.

We would encourage all contractors to read the briefing paper produced by Community Pharmacy England, which is available at the Briefing link below. 

Community Pharmacy England commissioned leading health think tanks Nuffield Trust and The King’s Fund to develop a vision for community pharmacy. The resulting independent report follows almost a year’s worth of research and consultation with the sector and wider stakeholders and advocates for community pharmacy.

‘A Vision for Community Pharmacy’ describes how Nuffield Trust and The King’s Fund foresee a transformation of the community pharmacy sector. The report not only sets out how community pharmacies’ role in healthcare could be expanded over the next decade, but also explores the barriers to achieving this, and the enablers which will help make progress towards it.

You can read the report in full, or read the summarised information below.

Read A Vision for Community Pharmacy

To help make the Vision report more digestible, Community Pharmacy England has prepared the following alternative summaries:

Briefing: Community Pharmacies: A Vision
A written summary of the Vision report and Community Pharmacy England’s action plan.

As an LPC we are working on the local pharmacy strategy with Lincolnshire Integrated Care System (ICS).  Last week we attended the first of a number of planned meetings, where we shared the above mentioned documents.  We are working with the ICS to ensure the local strategy aligns to the national 'Pharmacies of Tomorrow' vision, whilst taking into account the specific needs of Lincolnshire's population and pharmacy contractor base. We are also working with the ICS to ensure that appropriate resources are available to enable the strategy and vision to be practically implemented in the county.

There is more detail on the #PharmaciesOfTomorrow Community Pharmacy England vision and strategy and how you can support the campaign on their website here.

For the attention of prescribers in primary care: Guidance for the management of the National Patient Safety Alert

Methylphenidate, lisdexamfetamine & guanfacine

Following the recent National Patient Safety Alert released on 27.09.2023, the Lincolnshire ICB Medicines Optimisation Team collaborated with colleagues from United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT) and Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT) and have produced some guidance which can be accessed here.

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

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Community Pharmacy Lincolnshire is the name for Lincolnshire Local Pharmaceutical Committee. We are 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