In NPA Essential

Follow this topic

Bookmark

Record learning outcomes

All this month's news from the National Pharmacy Association...

Working together across the pharmacy sector

There are often calls for ‘unity’ in the sector – frequently made by the NPA, but also by others.

Presenting a united front to the NHS and government helps to ensure that a coherent case for investment is made. Did you know that the main pharmacy leadership bodies already work together on a wide range of projects with a highly practical purpose?

These include:

The Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group

The sector’s Medication Safety Officers meet regularly to share and learn from each other, as well as from other safety conscious industries, to consider how this learning could be applied across the pharmacy network. Key objectives include: encouraging reporting and support the application of learning from dispensing incidents and near-misses; share best practice and; learn from other parts of the health system as well as other industries with expertise in managing safety and risk, eg the aviationindustry.

The Community Pharmacy IT Group

The Community Pharmacy IT Group (CP ITG) brings together pharmacy representatives, NHS bodies, and IT suppliers to shape the future of digital pharmacy. Since its fi rst meeting in 2017, the group has worked collaboratively to highlight digital priorities and support the sector through ongoing digital transformation.

The Community Pharmacy Workforce Development Group

The Community Pharmacy Workforce Development Group (CPWDG) is a cross-sector working group that brings together the expertise of education and training leads from across the community pharmacy sector – to discuss how to ensure the community pharmacy workforce is fit for the future.

The All Party Pharmacy Group inParliament The APPG on Pharmacy was formed in December 1999, to drive forward cross-party conversations on topical issues and their signifi cance for pharmacy, patients and the NHS.

Recent inquiries and reports by the APPG include medicines shortages and the future of community pharmacy. The NPA and others are committed to backing the APPG so that it can continue its important work of educating MPs and peers about pharmacy’s strengths and challenges, and mobilising political action.

NPA board latest meeting

NPA chair Olivier Picard discusses the priorities and actions of the association...

The NPA board met towards the end of April – our aim being, as always, to ensure the voices of NPA members directly shape the NPA’s priorities and actions. Like all my fellow board members, I continue to run my own pharmacy business while also ensuring the NPA’s resources are concentrated on what pharmacy businesses of all types need to thrive.

This month we discussed, among other matters:

• Our ongoing advocacy for investment in community pharmacy and NHS contract reform

• Strengthening NPA policies to better support current pharmacy businesses and long-term sustainability

• Reviewing how we work with partners to ensure every collaboration delivers clear value to members

• Advancing our Independent Prescribing programme and expanding opportunities for services in the future

• Developing new learning and development opportunities to support pharmacy teams to succeed

• Shaping our member strategy to ensure we are visible, accessible and supporting you at every stage of your journey

• Continuing our nationwide engagement, attending events, meeting members, and staying connected to your needs

• We also refl ected on the Covid Inquiry – everyone has stories of sacrifi ce to tell. Thanks to former NPA chair Nick Kaye and NPA member Jon Rees who gave evidence to the inquiry in person, and all those who submitted written testimony.

One in 10 online pharmacies had website or social media cloned

One in 10 online pharmacies have seen their websites and social media presence cloned by criminals in order to trick patients into buying counterfeit weight loss medication, a shocking new survey by the National Pharmacy Association has found.

The NPA accused social media giants of being “asleep at the wheel”, having not done enough to prevent the sale of counterfeit medication online. Sehar Shahid (pictured), National Pharmacy Association board member, said: “I know fi rst hand how distressing it is to see criminals posing as regulated pharmacists to try and trick patients into buying counterfeit medicines.

Medicines from unregulated providers may be faked, swapped for an alternative medicine or not meet the strict regulatory standards we have in the UK. Although the MHRA works hard, their e orts are a drop in the ocean to tackle what is fast becoming a sophisticated criminal enterprise.”

Covid Inquiry latest

The latest Covid Inquiry report (Vaccines and Therapeutics), includes a recommendation that “in a future pandemic, vaccine deployment planners should use community pharmacies at an earlier stage” (unless there are clear operational barriers to doing so).

Around 1500 community pharmacy-led vaccination sites were established by the end of 2021 in England and were responsible for 20 per cent of all Covid-19 vaccinations during the first year of rollout. The NPA, as o cially a ‘core participant’ in the Inquiry, highlighted that many pharmacies have been forced to close since the pandemic, as a result of chronic underfunding.

The NPA’s view is that we need new funds to stabilise the network to ensure it is fighting fit to play its part in the battle against the next public health crisis that hits our shores. Being a core participant also means that we have been able to give evidence in person about community pharmacy’s experience as a key healthcare provider during the crisis.

We’re making sure the heroic efforts of everyone in our network are never forgotten.

Pressing for business rates changes

NPA chief executive, Henry Gregg, pushed pharmacies to be exempted from soaring business rates in the same way GPs and NHS dentists are, when he met Business Secretary Peter Kyle at Sigma’s offices in Watford.

We’ve been pressing the case for action on business rates ever since it was first floated for pubs and others in hospitality earlier this year – just part of our mission to press for a better deal for pharmacies. If pubs can get rates relief, why can’t pharmacies? Peter took the time to listen carefully to our case and has promised to raise this with the Treasury.

Medicines shortages first ever briefing withpatient groups

Medicines are the single most frequent healthcare intervention in the UK. Patients should be able to rely on a consistent and safe supply of medicines in primary care, to treat both acute and long-term conditions. Sadly this cannot be taken for granted.

That is why the NPA this month invited patient groups to its first ever Medicines Safety and Shortages Briefing. Representatives of respiratory patients, people with neurological conditions, cancers, epilepsy and more shared the latest picture from their perspective.

The NPA drew attention to factors such as chronically low UK pricing in a global marketplace and restrictions on pharmacists using their professional judgement to substitute medicines where appropriate. It was agreed to follow up with political action and steps to improve the public information available to patients encounteringshortages.

This is a decade-plus problem with no easy fi xes, but we can be certain that the best chance of success will involve working in partnership with patients, as well as government, NHS and the supply chain.

With representatives of so many patient groups gathered in one place, we also took the opportunity to warn against the growing danger of counterfeit medicines and cloned pharmacy websites, in the age of social media and AI.

Who benefits from an NHS contract based on margin?

As the sector holds its breath for the 26/27 CPCF announcement, it is clear a ‘business as usual’ settlement simply won’t cut it...

As we await an announcement on the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) for 26/27 it is worth thinking through what the various outcomes might mean for independent community pharmacy.

Overall, we can all agree that we need a significant (well above inflation) increase to the CPCF fixed sum (let’s not forget the findings of the NHS-commissioned economic analysis).

The CPCF fixed sum includes payment to cover overheads, all terms of services and essential service requirements as well as some clinical services like the New Medicines Service and the minor illness and emergency supply elements of Pharmacy First.

It does not include vaccination, Pharmacy First clinical pathways and monthly payments, hypertension case finding and contraception advanced services which are paid from other budgets.

Distribution of the CPCF

The main mechanisms for distribution of the CPCF (currently £3,073m) are:

• The single activity fee (currently £1.46 per item)

• Allowed medicines margin (currently £900m which averages to about 76p per item) with retrospective adjustment to deliver the correct amount.

Less than 20 per cent of the sum is distributed through other fees and allowances, clinical services paid for from within the CPCF fixed sum, Pharmacy Quality Scheme, Pharmacy Access Scheme, Serious Shortage Protocols, etc.

The more items you dispense the more single activity fees you receive (albeit you are paid the same for dispensing one month or one year’s supply) but this is not the case for medicines margin (earned on items in Category M and now also Category A of the Drug Tariff).

So, distribution of medicines margin depends on:

• The mix of items your pharmacy dispenses (which can be impacted by local prescribing policy like branded generics reducing the proportion of items from Categories M and C dispensed, volume of recent off-patent items, lags in reimbursement price setting impacting certain items, and granting ofpriceconcessions).

• The price you can purchase medicines for (impacted by availability of credit, volume of purchasing, use of shortline versus mainline wholesalers, minimum order thresholds and the amount of discount you can negotiate)

• Retrospective clawback of overdelivered margin The margin survey of a small sample of independent contractors, monitors how much margin is being earned and extrapolates this to all pharmacies in England. If the agreed amount (£900m currently) is overdelivered this is clawed back by reducing reimbursement prices of medicines.

If you are a small independent you are likely to have less credit available, less purchasing power and be more impacted by minimum order thresholds than larger businesses. You are also more likely to have less geographic spread meaning local prescribing policies have a bigger impact on your business and in future, to outsource dispensing to a hub.

Retrospective clawback (currently £16.8 million per quarter) is achieved through reducing medicines reimbursement prices, meaning there is less margin to be made but here is the double whammy: you could earn little or negative margin by dispensing items with a purchase cost higher then the reimbursement cost (which the contract requires you to do).

And then end up having excess margin clawed back from you, due to the reimbursement prices of items you dispense being artifi cially reduced to claw back excess margin earned by other pharmacies.

The system works for government, by pitching contractors against each other to increase their share of margin. It drives down prices but collectively it makes no di erence to overall pharmacy income as it’s all part of the CPCF fixed sum.

It also creates winners and losers and, no surprise, the winners are going to lobby for more money in margin and are never going to vote for change to a fairer distribution system.

There were commitments in the 24/25 and 25/26 funding settlement to both gain a better understanding of the impact of local prescribing activities on community pharmacy medicines margin and to improve and validate the medicines margin survey to underpin work on medicines margin distribution.

We can only wonder whether there has been any work in the past year on this to inform these negotiations, nothing has been publicly shared. So, is distributing more of the CPCF through margin a good thing? Probably not for small independents, but yes for larger business and yes for government.

NEW AND POPULAR NPA RESOURCES

Available on the NPA Membership Hub

Advertising Regulations

We have issued guidance to our members previously highlighting the advertising regulations for medicines in the UK (including online and via social media). This issue is also covered in our Knowledge article: Prescribing and supplying weight management medicines, where we address, more specifically, advertising GLP1s and weight management prescribing services online.

Vaccine Group Directions (VGDs) From 1 April 2026, VGDs have been introduced as a new legal mechanism for delivering NHS vaccination services, replacing National Protocols within legislation. Pharmacies can continue to use Patient Group Directions (PGDs), where appropriate.

The NPA has produced guidance on VGDs which brings together what you and your team need to know about safely delivering the NHS Spring 2026 COVID campaign under this new legal mechanism.

GPhC premises renewalchanges

The current myGPhCpharmacy platform will retire in late May 2026. From early June 2026, all GPhC premises renewal activities will move into myGPhC. We published an update for pharmacies on what this means for them.

Sexual safety charter

All businesses must comply with current legislation on harassment including sexual safety, for employees. ICBs in England are encouraging NHS contracted pharmacies to sign up to the NHS Sexual Safety Charter.

Our update outlines what this means to your business.

Data Security guidance 2025/2026 We have updated our Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPTK) 2025/2026 guidance with practical support to help you and your pharmacy team complete the toolkit. The DSPTK is mandatory and must be completed by 30 June 2026.