1. Background information
1.1. About this document
This document is intended to provide detailed information about
prescription data, as well as information on the essential and advanced
services provided by community pharmacies and appliance contractors to
the general public on behalf of the NHS. These details include the
processes carried out to transform a prescription issued by a prescriber
and submitted for reimbursement by a dispensing contractor, into these
statistics. This document also provides information on the methodologies
used in these statistics and used in an operational context to ensure
the accuracy and trustworthiness of this data.
This document will be updated as the statistical methodologies and
underlying business processes change over time. It will remain relevant
to the most up to date releases of the series.
1.2 About these statistics
Community pharmacies and appliance contractors are responsible for
dispensing medications, appliances, and medical devices to NHS patients.
They are not a direct part of the NHS but provide essential services on
behalf of the NHS to the general public.
The General Pharmaceutical Services (GPhS) – England publication
shows details on community pharmacy and appliance contractor activity
across the whole financial year. This includes the details on the number
of prescription items they have dispensed, the number of single activity
fees they have received, and further details on essential and advanced
services that they have provided. They cannot be used to provide the
total number or cost of prescription items dispensed in England in the
community, as they do not contain dispensing from all sources. This can
be obtained from another NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA)
National Statistic publication, Prescription
Cost Analysis.
The GPhS publication is an accredited official statistic release.
Accredited official statistics status means that GPhS meets the highest
standards of trustworthiness, quality, and public value, and complies
with all aspects of the Code of Practice for
Statistics.
The designation of this publication as an accredited official
statistic was confirmed in December 2021 following an assessment by the
Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). You can read more about this
confirmation and the assessment of these statistics on the OSR
website.
This publication can have a wide range of uses including informing
government or local NHS policy and allowing public scrutiny of national
and regional dispensing activities.
1.3 Community pharmacies and appliance
contractors
From 1 April 2013, NHS England became responsible for the
commissioning of NHS pharmaceutical services in England and for
negotiating changes to arrangements for the provision of services. The
Community
Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) for pharmacy contractors is
set out in the The
National Health Service (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical
Services) Regulations 2013, and the Pharmaceutical Services
(Advanced and Enhanced Services) (England) Directions 2013 are contained
within the Drug
Tariff for England and Wales.
Changes to the CPCF are negotiated between NHS England and Community
Pharmacy England (CPE), who are the representative body of community
pharmacists. The role of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
from April 2013 is to make any necessary changes to the legislative
framework.
The 2013 regulations state that a person who is not a doctor or
dentist must be included in a pharmaceutical list in order to be
permitted to provide pharmaceutical services for the NHS. NHS England
are required to prepare and maintain lists of those whose applications
have been granted to be listed as a pharmaceutical provider for both
community pharmacy and appliance contractors. The lists specify both the
premises and the named contractor.
Community pharmacies can dispense both drugs and appliances, but
appliance contractors are limited to the supply of appliances as listed
in Part IXA, IXB and IXC of the Drug Tariff. The Drug Tariff is
published by NHSBSA on behalf of the DHSC and Wales.
To receive payment for the costs and fees incurred while providing
services to the general public on behalf of the NHS, community
pharmacies and appliance contractors must submit their prescriptions to
NHSBSA along with a submission document, known as the FP34C. This has
recently been digitised by the Manage Your Submission (MYS) application
but was historically done via a paper form that accompanied paper
prescription batches. The processing applied to individual prescriptions
is discussed as part of ‘The prescription journey’ later in this
document.
Data regarding advanced services is taken from the FP34C submission
document, or from the MYS application. This is then passed to NHSBSA
payment systems to calculate account level payments that are to be made
to community pharmacies and appliance contractors.
1.4 Data included
1.4.1 Prescription data
Prescription data is a long-standing administrative source of data
that has been used by commissioners, providers, government, academia,
industry, and media to inform local and national policy, in academic
research, to monitor medicine uptake, and allow public scrutiny of
prescribing habits. It is collected by the NHSBSA for the operational
purpose of reimbursing and remunerating dispensing contractors for the
costs of supplying drugs and devices, along with essential and advanced
services, to NHS patients. All prescribing data that forms the basis of
the statistics in this publication is collected as a by-product of this
process.
Data is collected from prescriptions submitted to the NHSBSA by
dispensing contractors (community pharmacies and appliance contractors).
These prescriptions are issued by GPs or other authorised prescribers
such as nurses, dentists, and allied health professionals. Prescriptions
that are issued by hospitals may also be dispensed in the community and
submitted for reimbursement. Prescriptions that are issued in hospitals
and fulfilled by the hospital pharmacy or dispensary are not included in
this data.
Prescriptions can be issued as either a paper form or as an
electronic message using the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS). EPS
prescriptions make up most of prescribing and dispensing activity
carried out in England, accounting for 96%1 of all
prescriptions dispensed in England during 2023/24. EPS messages are
submitted by the dispensing contractor once the prescription has been
fulfilled and issued to the patient. The message is initially sent to
the NHS Spine, maintained by NHS Digital, and then sent to the NHSBSA
for processing.
Paper prescriptions are compiled by the dispensing contractor and
sent to the NHSBSA at the end of each month by secure courier. These
paper prescriptions are then scanned and transformed into digital
images, which are passed through intelligent character recognition (ICR)
to extract the relevant data from them. Most paper forms go through ICR
without any manual intervention. However, there are cases where operator
intervention is required to accurately capture information from the
prescription form. This manual intervention can be required for many
reasons, such as if a form is handwritten or information is obscured by
a pharmacy stamp.
After this processing for the reimbursement and remuneration of
dispensing contractors, data is extracted from the NHSBSA transactional
systems alongside data from the NHSBSA drug and organisational databases
and loaded in to the NHSBSA Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW). During this
extract, load and transform (ELT) process a series of business logic is
applied to the data to make it easier to use and more useful than if it
were to be kept in its raw form. The EDW is the source used by many of
our reporting systems and data extracts, including ePACT2, eDEN, eOPS,
the English Prescribing Dataset (EPD), and Official Statistics
publications.
Data is limited in this publication to only prescription items that
have been dispensed by a community pharmacy or appliance contractor in
England. Items dispensed by dispensing doctors, hospitals or prisons or
submitted for reimbursement via a personal administration account have
been excluded.
Data on advanced services provided by community pharmacies and
appliance contractors is limited to where a claim has been submitted to
NHSBSA in relation to performing one of those services. Counts around
the number of services provided are based upon the number of times a fee
has been paid to a contractor. The figures of the number of contractors
that provide a service are based upon the number of contractors that
have received payment of at least one fee for that service.
1 Source – NHSBSA Enterprise Data
Warehouse.
1.4.2 Primary care appeals data
Primary care appeals data is provided by NHS Resolution (previously
known as the NHS Litigation Authority) on an annual basis. If an
application for market entry for a pharmacy is refused, it can be
appealed to NHS Resolution under the NHS
Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services Regulations
2013.
The NHSBSA receive this data by secure transfer from NHS Resolution
on an annual basis. However, an aggregated
version of this data is already available in the public domain,
published by NHS Resolution as part of their annual report. This
published data is not as granular as the data included in this
publication and does not contain breakdowns by appeal types or the
locality of the appeals.
The data is generated from NHS Resolution’s claims management system.
This system is subject to internal audit and external audit by the
National Audit Office (NAO). Internal checks consist of a panel of
independent auditors that conduct an annual audit of the quality of data
entered against claims across a large sample. NHS Resolution analysts
also conduct their own quality checks, including checks for:
- Uniqueness – to make sure data is only counted once
- Data validity – excluding any invalid data
- Data completeness – to make sure that all valid data is
included
- Correct categorisation – to make sure data is categorised
correctly
- Consistency – to make sure data is treated consistently over each
year
The annual
report that NHS Resolution publishes is not designated as an
Official Statistic but is produced in line with a voluntary application
of the Code of Practice for Statistics, as is the data that is
subsequently used in this publication.
1.5 Geographies used in this publication
The geographies used in this publication are based upon NHSBSA
administrative records, not geographical health boundaries as defined by
the Office for National Statistics (ONS). These administrative records
more closely reflect the operational organisation of dispensing
contractors than other geographical data sources such as the National
Statistics Postcode Lookup (NSPL).
The NHS England Regions and 42 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) shown in
the statistical summary tables of this release are based on the NHS
organisational structure at 1 July 2022. Organisational changes
implemented on 1 July 2022 have resulted in Sustainability and
Transformation Plans (STPs) being replaced with ICBs.
Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) are a statutory organisation bringing
the NHS together locally to improve population health and establish
shared strategic priorities within the NHS. In these statistics the ICB
given is that of the dispensing contractor and not the prescribing
organisation. These geographies are taken from NHSBSA administrative
records and relate to the commissioning of services for NHS patients,
and not the physical location of a dispensing contractor, or the patient
that has received the drug, appliance, or medical device.
Some dispensing contractors are distance selling pharmacies or
‘online’ pharmacies. These contractors are required by regulation to
provide a national service to NHS patients. However, they are only
associated with a single ICB than expected volume of prescribing due to
the existence of a distance selling or specialist pharmacy within their
boundary.
2. Methodology
2.1 Counts of community pharmacies and appliance
contractors
The figures shown in this release by NHSBSA are based on contractors
that have been active at any point in the given year. This has been done
to provide consistency with other figures given in the publication that
do not exclude contractors that have closed during the year, and to more
accurately reflect the level of activities carried out by contractors
during a year.
Previous releases of these statistics by NHS Digital counted active
contractors as those open at 31 March of the given year. This change
avoids the exclusion of contractors that have opened and closed in the
same financial year.
2.2 Average monthly items per contractor
This measure is calculated by, for each pharmacy, dividing the total
items dispensed by the number of months the pharmacy was active in the
year. The median of these figures is then calculated to give the final
measure. A median is calculated by arranging all the available values
into an ordered list and selecting the value that is in the middle. If
there are 2 middle values, the median is halfway between them.
Previously this measure was calculated by dividing the total number
of items dispensed by community pharmacies by the total number of
community pharmacies, and then dividing this number by the number of
months in the year (total items dispensed / number of community
pharmacies / 12). This change means the average is no longer skewed by
contractors who are not open for all months of the year or by outliers
in the volume of dispensed items.
2.3 Contractor attributes
Attributes belonging to community pharmacies and appliance
contractors such as:
- Opened date
- Closed date
- Multiple or independent contractor
- Distance selling contractor
- Local Pharmaceutical Services (LPS) contractor
- Parent NHS England Region and Local Office
Are all taken from the 31 March of the year. Therefore, if a
community pharmacy was classed as an independent between April and
February, and subsequently became a multiple contractor in March, they
would be counted as a multiple contractor only. This ensures that counts
are not duplicated for contractor attributes.
2.4 Seasonal influenza vaccination advanced
service
Previously known as the National Influenza Adult Vaccination Services
(NIAVS). A distinct count has been done on the pharmacy’s dispenser
code, which remains the same if a contractor changes trading address, to
remove duplication and obtain a more accurate count. This differs from
historical releases by NHS Digital where the count was done on trading
address meaning a contractor could be counted multiple times if its
trading address changed during the financial year.
2.5 Monthly dispensing volume bands
The monthly dispensing volume bands calculates the items dispensed in
the year for each contractor, then divides that figure by the number of
months that contractor has been active throughout the year. Each
contractor is then placed into a volume band. Two separate measures
utilise this methodology, one which counts the number of contractors
within each volume band, and one which counts the number of items
dispensed by contractors that are within each of these volume bands.
Previously in historical releases by NHS Digital this measure was
calculated by the number of months in the year. This change means data
will not be skewed by contractors who are not open for all months of the
year.
3. Changes to this publication
3.1 Summary tables
Data regarding the Pharmacy First Service, an advanced service
introduced in Janaury 2024, has been added to the summary tables.
3.2 Statistical narrative
The advanced services Smoking Cessation Service (SCS) and Pharmacy
Contraceptive Service (PCS) have been added to the narrative.
3.3 Planned changes to this publication
NHSBSA plans to expand the scope of this publication in future
releases to report on all fees that a contractor can claim for providing
NHS services in order to provide a more complete picture of the total
cost of community pharmacy to the public purse. Future releases will
include the below:
The Pharmacy First Service (PFS) is a new advanced service which
commenced in January 2024. It will replace the CPCS. The full service
will consist of three elements:
Pharmacy First (clinical pathways), a new element
Pharmacy First (urgent repeat medicine supply), previously
commissioned as the CPCS
Pharmacy First (NHS referrals for minor illness), previously
commissioned as the CPCS
It will be included in this release from the 2024/2025
publication.
The NHS Pharmacy First - Clinical Pathway consultation advanced
service was introduced from 31 January 2024. Figures for items issued by
through the Clinical Pathway service have been included in the overall
counts for dispensed items and drug costs for pharmacies in this
publication. Further work to exclude these items will be undertaken for
future iterations of this publication.
5. Revisions
Any revisions that we make to these statistics will be made in line
with our Revisions and
Corrections policy. Any significant errors that are identified
within these statistics after their publication that would result in the
contradiction of conclusions previously drawn from the data will be
notified of prominently on our website and any other platforms that host
these statistics, corrected as soon as possible, and communicated
clearly to users and stakeholders.
In line with principle Q2.5 – Sound methods, within the Code of
Practice of Statistics and our Revisions and Corrections policy we
are releasing data from 2015/16 to 2019/20 with this publication to
maintain as consistent a time series as possible for users after the
changes in methodology have been applied to these statistics.
7. Quality of the Statistics
We aim to provide users of this publication with an evidence-based
assessment of its quality and the quality of the data from which it is
produced. We do so to demonstrate our commitment to comply with the UK
Statistics Authority’s (UKSA) Code of Practice for Statistics,
particularly the pillar of Quality and its principles.
Q1 Suitable data sources – Statistics should be
based on the most appropriate data to meet intended uses. The impact of
any data limitations for use should be assessed, minimised, and
explained.
Q2 Sound methods – Producers of statistics and data
should use the best available methods and recognised standards and be
open about their decisions.
Q3 Assured quality – Producers of statistics and
data should explain clearly how they assure themselves that statistics
and data are accurate, reliable, coherent, and timely.
Details of how we define statistical quality can be found in our Statement on
Quality Principles and Processes. This is an assessment of the
quality of these statistics against the European standard for quality
reporting and its dimensions specific to statistical outputs,
particularly:
- Relevance
- Accuracy and reliability
- Timeliness and punctuality
- Accessibility
- Coherence and comparability
These principles guide us and are complimented by the UKSA’s
regulatory standard for the Quality Assurance of Administrative Data
(QAAD). You can view our QAAD assessment of prescription data on our
website.
7.1. Relevance
This dimension covers the degree to which the product
meets user need in both coverage and content
The GPhS annual publication includes details on the activities of
community pharmacies and appliance contractors. It allows scrutiny of
essential services that are provided to the general public by dispensing
contractors on behalf of the NHS. These statistics cover from financial
year 2015/16 onwards, allowing the analysis of long-term trends in
dispensing. We believe that they can be used to inform policy decisions
at a national and local level, by the public to scrutinise dispensing
habits, and by academia and applied health researchers for matters
relating to public health. The NHSBSA also routinely receives Freedom of
Information requests and parliamentary questions about this subject
matter which we periodically review and use to inform the content of
future releases of all our statistical publications.
We will be gathering feedback from users of these statistics on an
on-going basis to help shape them and ensure that they remain relevant
and of use.
7.2 Accuracy and reliability
This dimension covers the statistics’ proximity between
an estimate and the unknown true value
7.2.1. Accuracy
These statistics are derived from data collected during processing
activities carried out by the NHSBSA to reimburse dispensing contractors
for providing services to NHS patients. Prescriptions are scanned and
subject to rigorous automatic and manual validation processes to ensure
accurate payments are made to dispensing contractors. Where electronic
prescriptions are used the scope for manual intervention and input into
data is reduced dramatically.
The figures used are collected as an essential part of the process of
reimbursing dispensing contractors (mainly pharmacists and dispensing
doctors) for medicines supplied. All prescriptions which are dispensed
in England need to be submitted to the NHSBSA if the dispenser is to be
reimbursed, and so coverage should be complete. Due to the manual
processes involved in the processing of prescriptions there may be
random inaccuracies in capturing prescription information which are then
reflected in the data. NHS Prescription Services, a division of NHSBSA,
internally quality assures the data that is captured from prescriptions
to a 99.70% level via a statistically valid random sample of 50,000
items that are reprocessed monthly. The latest reported Prescription
Processing Information Accuracy from NHS Prescriptions services,
which covers the 12 month period July 2022 to June 2023 is 99.91%.
Data supplied by NHS Resolution is collated with a voluntary
application of the Code of Practice for Statistics. They are used within
the NHS Resolution public annual report and are quality assured by NHS
Resolution analysts, as well as being subject to internal and external
(by NAO) audits.
As an exercise during the transfer of this publication from NHS
Digital to NHSBSA checks were carried out by NHSBSA statisticians to
make sure that historical data supplied by NHS Resolution matched
figures previously published by NHS Digital. For future releases a
series of checks will be established to ensure data are accurate. This
includes:
- Comparing historical values
- Testing if data supplied for a year is statistically significantly
different from previous years (Statistical Process Control)
- Outlier detection and flagging this with NHS Resolution
7.2.2. Reliability
As there is a manual data entry element to this system then
inevitably some small errors may occur in the data. The NHSBSA and NHS
Prescription Services take measures to minimise these errors. This
includes the presence of a permanent dedicated accuracy team within NHS
Prescription services which provides feedback to operators around any
errors identified to help prevent regular occurrence.
Data transfer between NHS Resolution has historically been done by
secure email via NHS Mail, during which it was possible that the excel
spreadsheet that holds the data could become corrupted, or the manual
process of extracting the data could lead to errors. NHSBSA have since
established an agreement with NHS Resolution to send the data in a
secure FTP transfer of files in machine readable format, allowing NHSBSA
to programmatically manipulate data and reduce scope for errors.
7.3. Timeliness and punctuality
Timeliness refers to the time gap between publication and
the reference period. Punctuality refers to the gap between planned and
actual publication dates
The General Pharmaceutical Services publication is published
annually. The publication date by NHS Digital has historically been in
November, as continued by the first in series of this publication by the
NHSBSA. The publication date has since been brought forward to October,
starting with the 2021/22 release. Data is usually available around six
weeks after the end of the month that the data relates to, and so there
is scope for this publication to be moved to earlier in the publication
calendar if there is a user need identified.
The NHSBSA understands that the long period of time between
availability of data and publication needs to be addressed and we plan
to do this as soon as possible. The date of release for the annual
publication will be announced in advance in line with our statistical
release calendar.
7.4. Accessibility and clarity
Accessibility is the ease with which users can access the
data, also reflecting the format in which the data are available and the
availability of supporting information. Clarity refers to the quality
and sufficiency of the metadata, illustrations, and accompanying
advice
The statistical summary narrative for this publication is presented
as an HTML webpage, with supporting documentation now also released in
HTML format. Summary data and additional analysis is presented in tables
in Excel files.
Clarity
A glossary of terms is included in this document, and the supporting
summary tables contain a metadata tab of fields used within them.
7.5. Coherence and comparability
Coherence is the degree to which data have been derived
from different sources or methods but refer to the same topic or
similar. Comparability is the degree to which data can be compared over
time and domain
The General Pharmaceutical Services publication is the only Official
Statistics release available regarding pharmacy and appliance
contractors in England. Comparable publications are not available for
Scotland and Wales, but an Official Statistics publication is released
by Northern Ireland. However, each devolved nation does publish
administrative data around dispensing activities. Links to these
datasets can be found in the resources section of this document.
The statistics contained in this release are from various data
sources, including the NHSBSA Data Warehouse, and NHS Resolution. All
data from the NHSBSA is subject to a consistent methodology used in the
processing of data prior to it being made available in the
warehouse.
The data used in this publication are not directly comparable to
other Official Statistics publications by NHSBSA. These statistics are
based upon a subset of dispensing of prescription items in England
carried out by community pharmacy and appliance contractors.
Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) along with our prescribing
publications, Medicines Used in Mental Health (MUMH) and Prescribing for
Diabetes (PfD) include data on prescription items dispensed by
dispensing doctors and personal administration accounts. Therefore, the
totals between these publications will not match.
Comparability with other publications produced by the NHSBSA can be
determined using the Official
Statistics guidance table, which is maintained with the release of
each new publication. This table shows how all of NHSBSA’s publications
compare across a range of measures to help users identify the best
publication for their needs or understand where differences in figures
may occur.
8. Glossary of terms used in these statistics
Appliance Use Review (AUR)
Appliance Use Review (AUR) was the second Advanced Service to be
introduced into the English Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework
(CPCF). AURs can be carried out by a pharmacist or a specialist nurse in
the pharmacy or at the patient’s home. AURs should improve the patient’s
knowledge and use of any ‘specified appliance’ by:
- Establishing the correct way for the patient to use the appliance
and the patient’s experience of such use
- identifying, discussing and assisting in the resolution of poor or
ineffective use of the appliance by the patient
- advising the patient on the safe and appropriate storage of the
appliance
- advising the patient on the safe and proper disposal of the
appliances that are used or unwanted.
Cost
In British pound sterling (GBP). The amount that would be paid using
the basic price of the prescribed drug or appliance and the quantity
prescribed, sometimes called ‘Net Ingredient Cost’ (NIC). The basic
price is given either in the Drug Tariff or is determined from prices
published by manufacturers, wholesalers, or suppliers. Basic price is
set out in Parts VIII and IX of the Drug Tariff. For any drugs or
appliances not in Part VIII, the price is usually taken from the
manufacturer, wholesaler, or supplier of the product.
COVID-19 vaccination enhanced service
This enhanced service was introduced towards the end of 2020/21
allowing community pharmacies to provide COVID-19 vaccinations as part
of the Phase 1 and Phase 2 cohorts of the Joint Committee on Vaccination
and Immunisation (JCVI). A further enhanced service was commissioned to
deliver Phase 3 alongside the seasonal influenza vaccination
program.
Discharge Medicines Service (DMS)
This essential service was introduced in February 2021 and allows
patients discharged from NHS Trust hospitals who need extra support with
their medicines to be referred to their community pharmacy.
Dispensing contractor/dispenser
A dispensing contractor or dispenser can be a community pharmacy or
appliance contractor (a dispenser that specialises in dispensing
dressing, appliances, and medical devices).
Prescriptions can also be dispensed by the dispensary of a dispensing
practice or personally administered at a practice. Dispensing practices
usually exist in more rural areas where the need for a dispenser is
deemed necessary, but it is not deemed financially viable to establish a
community pharmacy.
Electronic Prescription Service (EPS)
The Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) allows prescribers to send
prescriptions electronically to a dispenser, such as a pharmacy, of the
patient’s choice. This makes the prescribing and dispensing process more
efficient and convenient for patients and staff.
Fees
There are many fees that can be claimed by pharmacy and appliance
contractors for providing essential and advanced services to NHS
patients. A large proportion of these fees are made up of the dispensing
fee, which is also known as a professional fee or single activity fee.
This fee is paid to a pharmacy or appliance contractor when they
dispense a prescription item. Some items can attract more than one
dispensing fee. Details of what fees are payable to pharmacy and
appliance contractors can be found in the Drug Tariff for England and
Wales.
Hepatitis C testing service
This is an Advanced Service introduced in March 2021. The service
offers people who inject drugs (PWIDs), who are not engaged with
community drug and alcohol treatment services, an opportunity to receive
a point of care testing (POCT) HCV test from a community pharmacy.
Hypertension Case-Finding
This is an Advanced Service introduced in October 2021 following a
NHS England pilot where pharmacies offered blood pressure checks to
people 40 years and over and 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure
monitoring (ABPM) to some patient’s with elevated initial blood pressure
readings.
Integrated Care Board (ICB)
ICBs are a statutory organisation bringing the NHS together locally
to improve population health and establish shared strategic priorities
within the NHS. ICBs replaced Sustainability and transformation plans
(STPs) on 1 July 2022.
Items
The term Items refers to the number of times a product appears on a
prescription form. Prescription forms include both paper prescriptions
and electronic messages.
Medicines Use Review (MUR)
The Medicines Use Review (MUR) and Prescription Intervention Service
consisted of accredited pharmacists undertaking structured
adherence-centred reviews with patients on multiple medicines,
particularly those receiving medicines for long-term conditions.
National target groups were agreed in order to guide the selection of
patients the service was offered to. Both the MUR and Prescription
Intervention Service were discontinued in March 2021.
New Medicine Service (NMS)
The New Medicine Service (NMS) was the fourth Advanced Service to be
added to the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework and commenced on 1
October 2011. The service provides support for people with long-term
conditions who are newly prescribed a medicine to help improve medicines
adherence; it is focused on particular patient groups and conditions and
can only be undertaken on patients from these specific groups. Details
of the currently covered patient groups can be found in the NHS
England Service Specification.
Pharmacy Contraceptive Service (PCS)
The Pharmacy Contraceptive Services (PCS) is an advanced service that
commenced in April 2023, allowing the ongoing supply of oral
contraception (OC) from community pharmacies.
From December 2023, the service included both initiation and ongoing
supply of OC.
Pharmacy First Service (PFS)
The Pharmacy First Service (PFS) is a new advanced service which
commenced in January 2024. It will replace the CPCS. The full service
will consist of three elements:
Pharmacy First (clinical pathways), a new element
Pharmacy First (urgent repeat medicine supply), previously
commissioned as the CPCS
Pharmacy First (NHS referrals for minor illness), previously
commissioned as the CPCS
Seasonal influenza vaccination advanced
service
In 2015 community pharmacies began providing seasonal influenza
vaccinations under a nationally commissioned service by NHS England
& Improvement. Each year from September through to March, pharmacy
contractors can administer flu vaccines to patients and submit a claim
to NHSBSA for payment. This includes reimbursement of the cost of the
vaccine, plus a fee for providing the service to NHS patients.
Single activity fee (SAF)
The single activity fee (SAF) is a fixed fee that applies to every
prescription item that is dispensed. The SAF was introduced in December
2016 by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to consolidate a
range of payments into one single fee. These payments were:
- The professional fee (also known as dispensing fee)
- Practice payment
- Repeat dispensing payment
- EPS monthly allowance
The value of the SAF is set by DHSC and can fluctuate throughout the
year. It is based upon the forecast of the total number of items
dispensed to ensure that the fee delivery remains within the agreed
funding envelope for the year.
Smoking Cessation Service (SCS)
The Smoking Cessation service (SCS) is an Advanced Service introduced
in March 2022. Patients are discharged with consent to the community
pharmacy of their choice to continue smoking cessation treatment began
under an NHS Trust.
Stoma Appliance Customisation (SAC)
Stoma Appliance Customisation (SAC) is the third Advanced Service in
the NHS community pharmacy contract. The service involves the
customisation of a quantity of more than one stoma appliance, based on
the patient’s measurements or a template. The aim of the service is to
ensure proper use and comfortable fitting of the stoma appliance and to
improve the duration of usage, thereby reducing waste. The stoma
appliances that can be customised are listed in Part IXC of the Drug
Tariff.
