Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on community pharmacies, in particular in relation to funding reductions, of technical problems preventing such pharmacies from submitting accurate data for Pharmacy First consultations in February.

Some pharmacy contractors have experienced a discrepancy between the data that they have entered, and the data received by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA). This has affected February claims for Urgent Medicines Supply. This was caused by the new formatting of data received by the NHSBSA resulting from changes made by some IT system suppliers when implementing Pharmacy First.

The NHSBSA has been working closely with IT system suppliers to resolve the issues and identify the affected contractors. They have extended the deadline for claiming February activity. Contractors will be paid for all Pharmacy First consultations undertaken.

The contractual relationship for the provision of IT to support the new services is between pharmacy contractors and IT system suppliers. Any concerns should be raised by the contractor with their chosen IT system supplier.

The Department is aware of the disruption to service this has caused to some contractors, and the concerns that contractors have overpaid. That is why the claim window has been extended, and the NHSBSA is working closely with contractors’ IT suppliers to reconcile the data to ensure every consultation is captured and paid. We are keeping the situation under close review.