COVID-19: 10th July round-up for primary care
New risk assessment survey for community pharmacies
We recently sent a letter to all NHS providers reminding us as employers, we each have a legal duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of our own staff. Completing risk assessments is a vital component of this. Thank you to the many of you who have completed risk assessments and continue to provide support for your at-risk staff during this challenging period.
We will be seeking to understand the progress made in completion of risk assessments across the NHS, to help us to understand where assistance is needed locally, and help us to develop our wider support offer to systems. We are asking consistent questions across all NHS organisations, including Community Pharmacies and Dispensing Appliance Contractors.
The NHS Business Services Authority sent out a briefing on Thursday 9 July, with a link to the SNAP survey for all pharmacy contractors to complete. The same survey will be repeated and there will be two windows for collection of information, by Friday 17 July and by Friday 31 July – please complete the declaration in both windows even if 100% of assessments have already been completed. Data will be collated immediately after close and shared with regional teams and commissioners to allow follow up where needed.
Resources to support community pharmacy owners and managers to complete the risk assessments are available here:
COVID-19 support developments
Work is ongoing to support community pharmacies with the impact of COVID-19:
- Negotiations between the Department of Health and Social Care, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) and ourselves on specific additional community pharmacy costs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic began on 8 July 2020.
- The supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) has strengthened but any pharmacies experiencing problems obtaining PPE are asked to report issues to their local NHS England and NHS Improvement pharmacy contract team so issues can be followed up and resolved.
- Pharmacies are also asked to report any details of issues they encounter with local outbreaks of COVID-19 to their local pharmacy contract team to help the NHS understand the problem and provide appropriate support.
- The latest Public Health England COVID-19 ‘Stay Alert to Stay Safe’ public-facing campaign resources are available on the Campaign Resource Centre – please create a log-in to access these free materials.
Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework
There are several important updates for community pharmacies in relation to the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF):
- Several CPCF changes that were planned for implementation July will not be rolled out this month and negotiations are ongoing about future implementation dates. These include plans related to the: Discharge Medicines Service, Healthy Living Pharmacies, safeguarding, registration for CAS alerts, and the updating of the Directory of Service and NHS website details.
- We are working closely with the PSNC to publish some initial elements of the Pharmacy Quality Scheme in the near future.
- The Pandemic Delivery Service will be coming to an end at the end of July and pharmacies will need to transition their patients to the usual arrangements.
Primary Care Network clinical pharmacist role offers room to grow for a new recruit
Author, blogger and newly-appointed Primary Care Network (PCN) pharmacist Laura Buckley has written her first blog for us. In it she describes her transition from being a community pharmacy manager to working in a PCN multidisciplinary team and what she has learned from working in general practice helping patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19: 15th July round-up for primary care
Webinar recording – risk assessment in community pharmacy
We wrote to community pharmacies on 24 June 2020 to ask them to carry out a risk assessment of their pharmacy staff who are at potentially greater risk of COVID-19 within a four week period. On 8 July 2020 we held a webinar, involving speakers from the National Pharmacy Association and Royal Pharmaceutical Society, to help and support community pharmacy employers and managers to carry out these risk assessments within the agreed timescale.
This risk assessment work is an important part of a wider programme that the NHS is leading nationally to address the impact of COVID-19 on the BAME workforce. This includes work to improve protection, support and representation for the BAME pharmacy workforce across all sectors including community pharmacy teams.
The webinar recording and slides have been published on the FutureNHS website. The NHS Business Services Authority has sent every pharmacy a briefing and link to a risk assessment SNAP Survey to complete. There will be two windows for collection of information, by 17 July 2020 and by 31 July 2020 – please complete the declaration in both windows.
Pharmacy Quality Scheme – Essential Criteria Checklist
We have worked with the Department of Health and Social Care and Pharmacy Services Negotiation Committee to develop a new Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS) for 2020/21 which will be in two parts. Part 1 recognises the work many pharmacy contractors have already completed as a result of COVID-19 to ensure a safer environment for all staff and people who visit the pharmacy.
It is an Essential Criteria Checklist which includes a list of actions that must all be completed by any contractor wishing to claim a payment of £1,630 for PQS 2020/21 Part 1. Claims can be made via the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) Manage Your Service website and contractors are encouraged to complete this as soon as possible. Full details of the checklist can be found in the Drug Tariff determination on the NHS BSA website.
Completing Part 1 before 29 January 2021 is a prerequisite for claiming Part 2 of the PQS which will be announced in September 2020.
Employing a provisionally-registered pharmacist guidance
The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has written to pharmacy owners and superintendents to share guidance about employing provisionally-registered pharmacists.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the ability of trainees completing the pharmacist pre-registration scheme in 2020 to finish their training as planned, and to sit the registration assessment as originally scheduled.
Pending successful completion of the rescheduled assessment, the GPhC governing council has agreed a policy for registering pharmacists on a provisional basis.
The policy sets out that current pre-registration trainees who meet the criteria for provisional registration are able to be provisionally-registered as a pharmacist, with certain restrictions, from 1 August 2020.
The guidance sets out what employers and superintendents must do, if they plan to employ a pharmacist who is provisionally registered.
Mental health apps to support children and young people
A team across NHSX, NHS Digital, NHS England and NHS Improvement is working to identify a number of digital tools to support children, young people and adults who are experiencing increased mental health needs as a result of COVID-19, disrupted education or end of year exams.
Healios, the first supplier to complete the process for its ThinkNinja app, has now made this app available to download free of charge to all 10-18 year olds until the end of September. ThinkNinja will be joining over 20 existing apps already approved on the NHS Apps library for users to choose from. Information about the team’s work is available in this blog.
