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New NHS Pharmacy Regulations laid 20th October 2020

On 20th October 2020 new NHS regulations were laid to introduce changes to the Terms of Service for pharmacy contractors.

Some of these changes relate to the coronavirus pandemic, but most are changes which were previously agreed as part of the 5-year Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) and were originally planned to be introduced in July 2020.

The main changes were listed in a recent PSNC news article as a summary for contractors. PSNC have issued a series of 14 Regs explainer articles to help pharmacy contractors and their teams to understand the new requirements. You can access them all via the links below:

The pandemic-related additions to the Terms of Service are:

• Pandemic Treatment Protocols:
  From 9th November 2020, contractors must supply a Prescription Only Medicine (POM) to a person in accordance with a Pandemic Treatment Protocol (PTP), if and when one is issued, subject to the requirements of the PTP. Learn more in the explainer article.
• Flexible provision of flu or coronavirus vaccinations:
  From 9th November 2020, during a pandemic or in anticipation of a pandemic, a contractor may apply to NHSE&I to provide a relevant immunisation service from their pharmacy premises for a specified period and no other NHS pharmacy services.
  Learn more about flexible vaccination provision
• Facilitating remote access to pharmacy services:
  From 9th November 2020, contractors must facilitate remote access to their services to a reasonable extent, where patients wish to access these services in that way. Learn more about facilitating remote access
• Owing slips – these may be in an electronic form as well as a hard copy form.

The other new regulations, agreed as part of the five-year CPCF, include:

1. The introduction of the Discharge Medicines Service, as a new Essential service from 1st January 2021.
2. HLP requirements:
   From 1st January 2021, the Healthy Living Pharmacy Level 1 (HLP) requirements will become a new Terms of Service requirement for all pharmacies. Note there have been some changes to these, particularly in relation to how they will apply to Distance Selling Pharmacies. Learn more about the HLP requirements
3. Consultation rooms and remote consultations:
   From 1st January 2021, almost all pharmacies will need to have a consultation room. Distance Selling Pharmacies must ensure that there are arrangements in place at the pharmacy which enable staff and patients to communicate confidentially by telephone or another live audio link and a live video link. Learn more about the consultation room requirements
4. NHSmail:
   From 9th November 2020, pharmacy contractors must have a premises specific NHSmail account (with an email address using the following naming convention: pharmacy.ODScode@nhs.net), which their staff can access and can send and receive NHSmail from. There must be at least two members of staff that have live personal NHSmail accounts that are linked to the premises specific NHSmail account. Learn more in the explainer article.
5. Updating NHS website profiles:
   From 9th November 2020, contractors must ensure there is a comprehensive and accurate profile for their pharmacy on the NHS website. Contractors must also ensure they verify and, where necessary, update the information contained in the profile at least once in each quarter of the financial year. Learn more in the explainer article.
6. Updating DoS profiles:
   From 9th November 2020, pharmacy contractors must ensure there is a comprehensive and accurate profile for their pharmacy in the Directory of Services (DoS). Contractors must also ensure they verify and, where necessary, update the information contained in DoS at least once each quarter of the financial year. Learn more in the explainer article.
7. CAS alert sign-up:
   From 9th November 2020, contractors will be required to register their pharmacy’s shared NHSmail account to receive Central Alerting System (CAS) alerts direct from the MHRA.
   Learn more about the CAS requirement
8. EPS access:
   From 9th November 2020, access to the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) must be constant and reliable in all pharmacies, in so far as the pharmacy can control this. If EPS is temporarily unavailable, an item prescribed to a patient should be provided in a reasonable timescale and certain steps, which are currently advised by PSNC, must be considered Learn more in the explainer article.
9. Access to SCR:
   From 9th November 2020, pharmacy contractors must ensure that staff working at their pharmacy can access NHS Summary Care Records (SCR) and that access is consistent and reliable during the pharmacy’s opening hours, in so far as that is within the control of the contractor. Learn more in the explainer article.
10. Health campaigns:
    From 9th November 2020, NHSE&I can request that contractors provide additional information (anonymised if necessary), having consulted PSNC, to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign and to support policy development. Learn more in the explainer article.
11. NHSE&I inspections and access to electronic information:
    From 9th November, pharmacy contractors must now, on request, send to NHSE&I any information in electronic form which they would have access to when undertaking a contract monitoring visit and consequently, completion of the Community Pharmacy Assurance Framework (CPAF) becomes part of the terms of service. Learn more about giving NHSE&I access to information
12. Commencement notices and contractors entering administration:
    From 9th November, notice of commencements to NHSE&I must now be given no fewer than 30 days in advance, unless a shorter period of notice has been agreed in advance. Also, if a contractor goes into administration, they must notify NHSE&I. Learn more about these requirements

Further explainer articles will be published by PSNC in due course.

The Community Pharmacy Humber Contractor Event: Pharmacy Embracing the Future was held on Sunday 20th October 2019