Leyla Hannbeck, chief pharmacist at the NPA, provides advice on maximising Quality Payments

Gateway criteria
All four gateway criteria as highlighted below must be met in order for you to be able to claim quality payments:
• Ensure you are providing either Medicines Use Reviews (MURs), the New Medicine Service (NMS), or are registered for the NHS Urgent Medicine Supply Advanced Service (NUMSAS) Pilot
• Edit and/or validate your pharmacy’s NHS Choices profile
For the first review point, between 00:00 on 7 February 2017 and 23:59 on 28 April 2017
For the second review point, between 00.00 on 11 September 2017 and 23:59 on 24 November 2017
• Ensure that your pharmacy can send and receive NHSmail For the April 2017 review point, if you do not have an NHSmail account and have applied for it, then evidence of having submitted the application by 1 February 2017 is acceptable
• Demonstrate ongoing usage of Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) release 2 at your pharmacy premises.

Quality payments
To claim for quality payments, you are required to complete an online declaration via the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) website, as detailed in the NHS England guidance, between the following dates:
• For the first review point (28 April 2017) – between 9.00am Monday 10 April 2017 and 23.59pm Friday 12 May 2017
• For the second review point (24 November 2017) – between 9.00am Monday 13 November 2017 and 23.59pm Friday 8 December 2017
To be eligible for quality payments, a number of actions must be taken ahead of the review points to collate the necessary evidence/information to demonstrate that your pharmacy meets the requirements for the quality criteria on the day of each review point. I have summarised the key action points required under each quality criterion in our new factsheet.

Patient safety report
Part of the quality payments scheme, one of the eight quality criteria, is “production of a written report that demonstrates evidence of analysis, learning and action taken in response to near misses and patient safety incidents, including implementation of national patient safety alerts and having shared learning”.

I am pleased to announce the launch of the following resources produced by the NPA Pharmacy Services team to support you in meeting the patient safety criterion for quality payments:
• Blank template annual report – a template annual report form for contractors to complete electronically, or print off and complete by hand
• Blank template monthly report – an optional monthly version of the annual report form; contractors do not need to complete this to meet the criterion, but completing the monthly form will make it quicker and easier to produce the annual report.
• General guidance – a resource providing general guidance on the written safety report, including what should be included in the report, how to collate and analyse the evidence for the report, what to do with the report, and the importance of having a ‘just’ culture in the pharmacy
• Guidance on completing the template annual report with examples – a useful resource which takes contractors through each section of the annual report form, providing guidance and examples of how to complete it.

For further information, please contact the NPA Pharmacy Services team on 01727 891800 or email pharmacyservices@npa.co.uk.