| Weekly News Digest - 3rd July 2025 |
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| 1 in 3 adults in England has high blood pressure—many unknowingly. Join our practical session for community pharmacy teams to sharpen your impact through the NHS Hypertension Case-Finding Service. Don't miss this opportunity to join Clare Holland as she discusses how the revised service specification could alter its delivery, explore examples of what “good service” looks like in consultations, how to liaise and follow up with General Practice and discuss the little things that make a big difference to patients—and pharmacy teams. The webinar will provide: ✅ Key updates to the service ✅ Real-life consultation tips ✅ Simple techniques that save lives. Further details and how to join the webinar coming soon! |
| The programme dates for Flu vaccination and COVID-19 vaccinations has been confirmed. In Autumn 2025, COVID-19 vaccinations in England will be offered to adults aged 75+, care home residents for older adults, and immunosuppressed individuals aged 6 months and over. The programme will run from 1st October 2025 to 31st January 2026. The Flu vaccination programme for preganant women will start from 1st September 2025 and vaccinations for all other eligible adult cohorts will run from 1st October 2025 to 31st March 2026. See here for more information. |
| The CPAF screening questionnaire is now available on the MYS portal from 1st July to midnight on 31st July 2025. Completion of this questionnaire is mandatory for all pharmacy owners as it is part of the Terms of Service, and may lead to the requirement to complete the full CPAF questionnaire. Community pharmacies will receive instructions on how to complete the screening via email from the NHSBSA or their Head Office. If you have not received the relevant information by 2nd July 2025, or if you encounter any issues with the questionnaire, please contact NHSBSA at pharmacysupport@nhsbsa.nhs.uk. See here for more information. |
| Community Pharmacy England has confirmed that consultation fees for the Hypertension Case-Finding Service (HCFS) and Pharmacy Contraception Service (PCS) will now be included in the advance payments made to pharmacy owners by the NHSBSA. The first advance payment, covering work completed in April 2025, was issued on 12 May 2025. This amount will be reconciled and recovered on 1 July 2025 when the full April payment is processed. See here for further details and payment timetable. |
| A review of the Pharmacy First clinical pathways and PGDs has been completed. Edits have been made and draft versions are now available to view on the NHSBSA website. For now, the service has not changed, and pharmacy owners and their teams must continue to provide the service in line with the current documentation published on the NHSE website. Click here. |
| In the recent CPCF funding settlement, it was agreed that changes would be made to the Pharmacy Contraception Service (PCS) to include drospirenone within the list of contraceptives which can be supplied and to add oral emergency contraception (EC) to the service. See here for more information and to view the draft documents. |
| Community Pharmacy England has today released a national report demonstrating the impact of a ‘distressing new normal’ of medicines shortages on patients and community pharmacies across England. Read the key findings of the Pharmacy Pressures Survey 2025. |
| New research commissioned by Healthwatch England shows that public satisfaction with pharmacy services remains high a year after the NHS launched Pharmacy First, despite persistent medicine shortages that continue to disrupt patient care. |
| Community Pharmacy England’s in-house Drug Tariff and funding experts have created a new video introducing the Pricing Audit Team (PAT). Click here. |
| Following changes to the incident reporting process, a new incident reporting approved particular has been published. This document replaces the previous approved particular, which has been in place since July 2024. Contractors should familiarise themselves with the content of this new document to ensure they understand what is considered an incident and what is required should an incident occur. |
| The latest edition of the SPS Spotlight Digest is available to download. |
| The Discharge Medicines Service MYS claims portal has been streamlined. The new shortened MYS journey will go live on 6 July 2025. Claims for service delivery completed before 5 July. Any activity that will not be completed by 5 July must then be entered using the new MYS portal from 6 July onwards. See here for more information. |
| Stay informed with the Pharmacy Academy podcast channel, a great source for weekly updates on essential pharmacy topics, powered by insights from NHS, CPE, and PGD guidance and AI generated for clarity. Stay connected, enhance your expertise, and dive into key pharmacy discussions—all in one place. |
| Join senior members from Community Pharmacy England at Crawley, near Gatwick, on Wednesday 23rd July. They’ll discuss key issues, the impact of the CPCF deal, and strategies to engage policymakers. This is a valuable chance for local pharmacy owners to help shape the 2026/27 CPCF negotiations. Register here. |
| Virtual Outcomes has produced a module to support pharmacies with providing Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM). The LPC subscribes to the Virtual Outcomes training platform, granting our pharmacies access to an array of online training resources. To get started, simply enter your ODS Code using this link. |
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