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Advanced Services
There are four Advanced services within the NHS community pharmacy contract. Community pharmacies can opt to provide any of these services as long as they meet the requirements set out in the Secretary of State Directions.
Information on the services can be found by clicking on the links below which will redirect you to the PSNC website.
Medicines Use Review (MUR) and Prescription Intervention Service
Referral for New Medicine Service Template
Secondary Care Referral for Targeted Medicine Use Review and New Medicine Service
NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS)
Appliance Use Review (AUR) Service
Stoma Appliance Customisation (SAC) Service
The NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS)
CPCS is a new national (advanced) service which enables NHS 111 to refer patients to community pharmacies when they have a minor illness or need an ’emergency supply’ of a medicine previously prescribed. The aim is to help relieve pressure on the wider NHS and speed up patient access to treatment by making use of pharmacists’ core knowledge and skills.
Key Documents
The key contact details required for the service (Annex C of the Service Specification) have been emailed out to all CPCS pharmacies to the NHS shared email account used to register for the service. Pharmacists providing the service can also view out of hours contact information as well as a list of other CPCS pharmacies (with contact telephone numbers and opening hours) via PharmOutcomes.
Useful Resources
- PSNC Community Pharmacist Consultation Service Information Hub
- CPCS Patient flow diagrams
- CPCS Implementation Checklist
- CPCS Locum Checklist
- Pharmoutcomes CPCS User Guides
- Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) Event Presentation
- Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) Event Handout
Bulletins
- Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) Bulletin - October 2019
- Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) Bulletin - December 2019
Claiming Payment
All claims for service provision are made via the NHSBSA Manage Your Service (MYS) portal. PharmOutcomes will prepopulate the claims information in MYS each month based on service activity recorded, however, this will not automatically submit the claim. Contractors will need to login to MYS at the start of the following month to confirm that the information is correct and to submit the claim.
Claims should be submitted before the 5th of the month for the previous months service provisions. You can claim for previous months service provisions for up to 6 months.
Claims submitted after the 5th of the month will be included in the following months claims e.g. a claim for June submitted on the 6th July will become part of the July claim for consideration in August.
FAQs
See here for FAQs. For any other queries about the service, please contact Lisa Meeks by email lisa@cpwy.org or by telephone 07736 636 023.
NHS Urgent Medicine Supply Advanced Service (NUMSAS)
This service has now been replaced by the NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS). See above for more information.
Provision of advanced services by pharmacy and dispensing appliance contractors.
West Yorkshire Area Team policy
This policy includes details about the provision of MURs off-site, in patients’ homes and over the telephone. This is a nationally agreed policy which Community Pharmacy West Yorkshire has had no input in to. We will be considering the implications of this policy at our next meeting.
NHS England policy on advanced services
Forms for completion (PREM2 forms) can be found on the PSNC website by here.
You should send completed forms to your West Yorkshire Area Team contact. These can be found on our website by clicking here.
NMS & MUR Submissions
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) now administers the collection of completed MUR and NMS electronic reporting templates from pharmacy contractors on behalf of NHS England. Pharmacy contractors will no longer receive any reminder and will therefore need to remember to submit their completed quarterly MUR and NMS electronic reporting templates to the NHSBSA via the Information Services Portal.
For further information please click on the link below:
http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/PrescriptionServices/5539.aspx
Referral for New Medicine Service Template
The following template can be used by prescribers to refer patients for an NMS.
Template Letter for GP NMS Referral for Patients Newly Prescribed Hypertension Medicine - Leeds
Template Letter for GP NMS Referral for Patients Newly Prescribed Hypertension Medicine - WY
Template Letter for GP NMS Referral for Patients Newly Prescribed an Anticoagulant
Secondary Care Referral for Targeted Medicine Use Review and New Medicine Service
Guidance for the use of secondary care referral form
Flu Vaccination Advanced Service
The annual flu letter for 2020/21 was published on 14th May 2020 – see here. This letter acknowledges that delivering the flu immunisation programme is likely to be more challenging because of the impact of COVID-19 and further guidance will be issued nearer the planned start of the programme in September 2020.
An update letter, which includes further details on the National Flu Immunisation Programme, was published on the 5th August 2020 - see here. The letter includes information about additional groups of patients which will be included in the eligibility criteria for this year’s flu vaccination. Contractors are advised to please read the National Flu Immunisation Programme update letter in full, but a summary of the information is also provided by PSNC here.
The Directions, Service Specification and PGD for 2020–21 have been published and are available on the PSNC website here: https://psnc.org.uk/services-commissioning/advanced-services/flu-vaccination-service/
Flu Vaccine Ordering for 2020/21
The annual flu letter for 20/21 outlines the vaccines agreed for use by NHSE&I for the 20-21 programme.
Patients aged 65 years and over
- Patients aged 65 years and over should be offered the adjuvanted trivalent vaccine (aTIV).
- The quadrivalent influenza cell-culture vaccine (QIVc) is also suitable for use in this age group, IF aTIV is not available.
Patients aged 18 years to under 65 years in an at-risk group
- Contractors should consider the use of QIVc in the first instance for at-risk adults aged less than 65 years (including pregnant women).
- Quadrivalent influenza egg-culture vaccine (QIVe) should also be considered as an alternative to QIVc, subject to the JCVI considerations outlined in the NHSE&I letter issued in December 2019 – see here.
Please refer to the annual flu letter for 20/21 for full details about recommended vaccines.
PSNC information on flu vaccine ordering for 20/21 for further details.
Flu Service 2020/21 Updates
Community Pharmacy West Yorkshire will be regularly sending contractors updates as new information is released. Previous updates can be found below:
Flu Service Update 6: Wednesday 16th September 2020
Flu Service Update 5: Wednesday 19th August 2020
Flu Service Update 4: Wednesday 12th August 2020
Flu Service Update 3: Thursday 6th August 2020
Flu Service Update 2: Thursday 30th July 2020
Flu Service Update 1: Thursday 23rd July 2020
Other Briefing Documents and Resources
- Annual Flu Letter 2020 to 2021
- Annual Flu Letter UPDATE 2020 to 2021
- Flu Vaccines for the 2020 to 2021 Season Poster
- PSNC - Early Guidance on the Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Advanced-Service 2020-21
- Chapter 19 of the Immunisation Against Infectious Disease, “The Green Book”, can be downloaded here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/influenza-the-green-book-chapter-19.
- NHS Guidance to Manage Locally Held Vaccine Stock
Providing Vaccinations During the Pandemic
Providers will need to keep up-to-date with the latest Government guidance to help reassure patients that appropriate measures are in place to reduce the risk of contracting COVID-19 (Standard Operating Procedures in the context of COVID-19 have been issued and are available at https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/publication/standard-operating-procedure-community-pharmacy/)
For guidance on PPE and additional flexibilities which have been introduced for this season, see the PSNC flu page and the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) use in 2020/21 section.
Training Requirements for the National Flu Vaccination Service
Face to face training (to cover both injection technique and basic life support training, including administration of adrenaline for anaphylaxis) is required every THREE years. See the Flu Vaccination - Training Requirements and Resources page on the PSNC site here for further information, which includes a list of possible training providers.
This requirement ordinarily means (see COVID-19 update below) that a pharmacist who undertook face-to-face training for both injection technique and basic life support in 2017 would need to undertake face-to-face training in 2020 in order to continue to provide the service in 2020/21.
COVID-19 update: Public Health England has confirmed that anyone who has undertaken face to face vaccination training before and is due to undertake face-to-face training this year, can delay the face-to-face requirement until next year. Read more here. Anyone who has NOT previously trained however MUST undertake full training before commencing flu vaccination.
The Vaccination Services Declaration of Competence (DoC) must also be completed and this is required every TWO years.
In addition to completing the Vaccination Services DoC every two years, pharmacists providing the service have a professional responsibility to complete an annual update. This annual refresher training can be self-directed learning and need not be face-to-face training. This could, for example, include undertaking the assessment modules of an immunisation e-learning programme and doing/re-doing the necessary modules to refresh knowledge, reading through the ‘Information for healthcare practitioner’ documents on the PHE website, listening to any available webcasts and reading recently published articles on immunisation relevant to the area of practice. There is no stipulated way to do the annual update training but as a vaccinating pharmacist there is a professional obligation to ensure skills and knowledge are up to date.
For further information please refer to the PSNC page on training requirements for flu here. If you need any help with anything, please contact Lisa Meeks (lisa@cpwy.org) who will be happy to help.
Service Delivery Resources
Patient Leaflet - PHE, The Flu Vaccination 2020-21 (who should have it and why) Note - hard copies of this leaflet can be ordered free of charge and translated versions are also available – see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/flu-vaccination-who-should-have-it-this-winter-and-why
Patient Leaflet - PHE Information for People with a Learning Disability (Easy Read)
Poster - PHE Flu Learning Disability Easy Read
Tear Off Appointment Slip / Flyer
Key facts about flu and flu vaccination - to support discussions with patients
Myth Buster - to support discussions with patients
Identifying carers for flu vaccination
CPWY Flu Poster - Heart Condition
Pharmacy Team Resources
This PSNC page contains additional information and resources for pharmacy teams.
Claiming Payment
All payments must be claimed via the NHSBSA Manage Your Service (MYS) portal; no paper-based claims process is available for the service. This year PharmOutcomes will be able to pre-populate claim information in MYS each month, so that the contractor then just needs to login to MYS at the start of the following month to confirm that the information is correct and then to submit the claim.
Claims will be accepted by NHSBSA within six months of administration of the vaccination or by 31st August 2021, whichever date is earlier, in accordance with the usual Drug Tariff claims process. Later claims will not be processed. See PSNC page on claiming payments here if further information is required.
Flu Collaboration
Frequently Asked Questions
The PSNC website is a great source of information and resources for pharmacy teams. This includes a useful Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and answers page which are updated on an ongoing basis:
Last Updated: 11th September 2020