Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS)

The NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service launched on 29th October 2019 as an Advanced Service. Since 1st November 2020, General Practices have been able to refer patients for a minor illness consultation via CPCS, once a local referral pathway has been agreed. Read more about the GP referral pathway here.

The service, which replaced the NUMSAS and DMIRS pilots, connects patients who have a minor illness or need an urgent supply of a medicine with a community pharmacy.

As well as referrals from General Practices, the service takes referrals from NHS 111 and in some areas, from Integrated Urgent Care Clinical Assessment Services.

Refer to the Community Pharmacy England hub page on CPCS here.

CPCS Key Documents 

• CPCS Service Specification
• CPCS Toolkit for Pharmacy Staff

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

• Community Pharmacy England CPCS Information Hub
• CPCS – When is it complete?
• CPCS Patient flow diagrams
• CPCS Implementation Checklist
• CPCS Locum Checklist
• Pharmoutcomes CPCS User Guides
• Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) Event Resources
• Using the CPCS Manual Entry Templates on PharmOutcomes
• Community Pharmacist Consultation Service – Overview for Pharmacists New to the Service in WY

Bulletins

• Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) Bulletin – October 2019
• Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) Bulletin – December 2019
• The NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service Update – November 2020

GP Referral Pathway

From 1st November 2020, the CPCS was extended across England to include referrals from General Practices as well as from NHS 111. Unlike the implementation of the 111-referral pathway, the GP referral pathway will be activated at different times across the country, ideally, happening across Primary Care Networks (PCNs).  See here for further information about the GP referral pathway including what contractors should do to prepare for local rollout.

West Yorkshire Implementation

Local implementation of GP CPCS is being led by the regional NHSE Team. A GP CPCS Steering Group has been set up to provide oversight, direction, and management of the roll out of West Yorkshire GP CPCS and includes representation from a wide number of stakeholders including Community Pharmacy West Yorkshire.

The regional NHSE team is looking to identify PCNs / practices in West Yorkshire that are keen to implement the GP referral pathway.

For any practices that are interested in providing GP CPCS or would like to find out more please email wyicb.pharmacy@nhs.net.

Status Update

See below for the latest status update on the rollout of the GP referral pathway across West Yorkshire.

GP CPCS Status Update – 31st July 2023

Top Tips for the GP Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) 

Please see the video below for CPWY’s advice and top tips for delivering the GP CPCS put together by our Services Facilitator, Amanda Smith, with an introduction from our CEO, Nicola Goodberry Kenneally.  Some top tips have also been added to a document to share with pharmacy teams, which can be found below.

Top Tips for GP CPCS – September 2023

Mentioned within the introduction is the Walk-in Consultation Service (WiCS) which ended 31st August 2023. Data collated from March to August shows the amazing work carried out by pharmacies delivering this service. From this data, template letters have been created for community pharmacies to personalise and send to their local GPs. The letter includes area specific data to demonstrate the benefits of GPs sending GP CPCS referrals to your pharmacy through the formal referral pathway.  The letters can be found here:

WiCS Bradford Place Letter – August 2023

WiCS Calderdale Place Letter – August 2023

WiCS Kirklees Place Letter – August 2023

WiCS Leeds Place Letter – August 2023

WiCS Wakefield Place Letter – August 2023

Digital Support for GP Practices

Regionally, NHSE has secured funding to enable an integrated digital solution for practices across Yorkshire:

• EMIS Patient Access (for EMIS-web practices) – this is a tool integrated into EMIS-web which includes the condition list and some triage questions to help identify appropriate referrals. The tool pre-populates with patient demographic information and sends it directly from EMIS to the community pharmacy system (PharmOutcomes) via ITK link.  There is a helpful short 4-minute video for general practice teams to see this tool in practice. More detailed information is available from the Patient Access Webinar Video (45 minutes).

• PharmRefer (for SystmOne practices) – this is a web-based referral tool for which practices will have a login and which captures the same patient demographic information and sends it directly to the community pharmacy system (PharmOutcomes). Further information about PharmRefer can be found here.

The licenses for these tools will be for a fixed period – 12 months in the first instance.

Resources to Support Rollout of the GP Referral Pathway

• NHSE Step by Step Guide to Implementation – available from the West Yorkshire Health & Care Partnership website here
• GP CPCS Briefing and Next Steps for Community Pharmacy Teams – November 2021
• Community Pharmacy England CPCS GP Referral Pathway Information
• FAQs – Implementing the GP Referral Pathway
• CPCS GP/PCN Implementation Checklist
• CPCS Minor Ailment Conditions List & Practice Aide Memoir
• CPCS Local Protocol Template – PCN
• CPCS Local Protocol Template – GP Practice

Learning & Development Resources

• CPPE has a range of training resources which can be used by pharmacists in preparation to provide the CPCS, including a self-assessment framework which supports pharmacists in reflecting on their knowledge and skills. It is recommended that pharmacists use this framework to plan their learning ahead of providing the service. Further information is available on the CPPE website.

• Virtual Outcomes Training (free for all West Yorkshire pharmacy teams). This online training includes a comprehensive CPCS training package to support pharmacies and GP practices with the CPCS service. The package of courses includes local implementation and delivery training for pharmacy teams as well as CPCS training aimed at GP Practice teams. To access these courses, visit https://www.virtualoutcomes.co.uk/pharmacy-training/.

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 5^th 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 5^th 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.

CPCS Frequently Asked Questions – see here.

For any other queries about the service, please contact Lisa Meeks by email lisa@cpwy.org or by telephone 07736 636 023.

Last Updated: 31st July 2023