The government has committed to reviewing community pharmacy funding, it has been announced.
A Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesperson has said in a statement that it will 'launch a review of community pharmacy funding'.
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The Pharmacist understands that formal negotiations on the community pharmacy contractual framework (CPCF) for 2024/25 are yet to re-commence, following a pause for the general election.
In the previous CPCF, covering April 2019-March 2024, the government committed to 'review the funding model and the balance between spend on dispensing and new services within the CPCF as part of creating the capacity and funding necessary to deliver the wider shift towards a greater emphasis on service delivery'.
But in July 2023, an inquiry into pharmacy by the Health and Social Care Select Committee (HSCC) found that the previous government's action on this commitment 'requires improvement'.
An expert panel commissioned by the HSCC said that the evidence it received was ‘clear’ that ‘most stakeholders did not consider that an appropriate review has taken place, with two describing the funding model as “broken”’.
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Janet Morrison, chief executive of Community Pharmacy England (CPE), said that the negotiator had recently met with minister for care Stephen Kinnock, who had been briefed on community pharmacy over the summer.
'We underlined the critical pressures on pharmacies and the urgent need for a significant funding uplift to prevent the sector’s collapse and we expect negotiations on the CPCF for 2024/25 to resume soon,' she said in CPE's most recent statement on the negotiations.
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The Pharmacist is seeking further details from the DHSC on its review of community pharmacy funding.
More to follow
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