Community Pharmacist Consultation Service Update
As part of a service expansion planned by NHS England, on the 1st November 2020 GP referrals to community pharmacy teams will be included as part of the national CPCS service. These referrals will be for patients suffering from minor ailments only.
Pharmacy teams can start to prepare for the local rollout by:
- Reading the updated NHS CPCS Toolkit for pharmacy staff, so you understand more about how the pathway will operate;
- Reading the updated service specification;
- Briefing relevant staff on the changes to CPCS;
- Ensuring pharmacists that will provide the service read the updated toolkit and service specification;
- Supporting pharmacists to reflect on continuing professional development activity they could undertake to provide the best possible service to patients, which could include undertaking the NHS-funded CPCS training provided by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the Royal College of General Practitioners.
Engagement and setup payment
Contractors registered to provide the CPCS will be able to claim a £300 engagement and setup payment if they undertake a range of actions to get ready for rolling out the referral pathway in their area. The requirements are detailed in Annex F of the updated service specification and further guidance will be issued on this shortly.
Pharmacy contractors that are not registered to provide the service can still do so via the NHSBSA Manage Your Service (MYS) portal.
The team at PharmOutcomes have already created a dedicated GP CPCS template to support these referral follow-ups that will appear in the pharmacy PharmOutcomes “Services” screen. This will be available in the service sidebar of the pharmacy “Services” page from the 1st November 2020.
