Community pharmacies in England will receive a further 20 million in advance funding to ease ‘cash flow problems’ caused by the coronavirus pandemic, PSNC announced yesterday (29 June).

The payment comes in addition to the £350 million the sector has received in instalments since April.

PSNC is continuing to highlight to the government the ‘urgent need’ to provide the sector with extra funding, rather than advance payments. The funding negotiating body is pressing for contractors not to have to pay back any of the £370 million.

This is the smallest amount of extra funding the sector has been given by the government during the pandemic; which PSNC said reflected how costs and cash related issues have lessened now the pandemic is easing.

In addition to a large cash injection, last month the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced that they would increase medicine reimbursement prices by £15 million in June in an attempt to minimise the ‘significant cash flow problems’ facing the sector.

PSNC Chief Executive Simon Dukes welcomed the additional funding: ‘These advance funding payments, combined with the continued uplift in reimbursement prices, should help to ease the immediate cashflow and procurement problems that we know many pharmacy businesses are still grappling with as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. What contractors need now is certainty about the rest of the funding for this year: PSNC will keep fighting for this.’