Report Apr. 24 2024
Committee: Public Accounts CommitteeFound: However, a lack of government oversight over these providers exposes the student finance system to exploitation
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the establishment grant for pharmacies extending into Pharmacy First for (a) consulting and (b) waiting facilities.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Pharmacy First was launched on 31 January 2024, and as the service embeds, we will monitor and evaluate the service and keep the conditions covered by Pharmacy First under review, but it is too early to consider expanding the clinical pathways.
In the Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care, we estimated that Pharmacy First, together with the expanded blood pressure check and contraception service, once fully scaled, could remove up to 10 million general practice (GP) appointments. We are monitoring the number of Pharmacy First consultations in community pharmacy but it is not possible to monitor the number of GP appointments Pharmacy First frees up. However, we know that Pharmacy First will enable GPs to see patients with more complex needs quicker.
Since 2019, GPs and their teams have already been referring patients to community pharmacies for minor illnesses and Pharmacy First builds on this. NHS England has engaged with GPs during the development and launch of Pharmacy First and Community Pharmacy England has launched a dedicated website for GPs supporting them with Pharmacy First referrals.
Pharmacies are not paid an establishment grant. Contractors who have signed up to deliver Pharmacy First received a £2,000 set-up fee, they receive £15 per consultation and £1,000 for each month they reach an agreed minimum number of consultations. Funding for community pharmacies, including the funding for Pharmacy First, is expected to pay for all their costs in providing the service. There are no delays to Pharmacy First payments. All payments are made in line with the usual schedule of payments.
The statutory National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage is based on advice of the Low Pay Commission, which takes into account the impact on business and the wider economy, as well as the living standards of workers.
Apr. 22 2024
Source Page: I. List of ministerial responsibilities. 88p. II. List of non-ministerial departments and executive agencies. 22p. III. Letter dated 19/04/2024 from Alex Burghart MP to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee regarding documents for deposit, and copying them for deposit in the House libraries. 1p.Found: The Lord CALLANAN Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of a rebate scheme for the cost of pharmaceuticals for community pharmacies.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Community pharmacies are responsible for purchasing the medicines and other products that they supply as part of National Health Service pharmaceutical services. The purchase price, including rebates schemes available to them, is a commercial decision for the pharmaceutical wholesalers and manufacturers who sell to them.
Report Apr. 19 2024
Committee: Public Accounts CommitteeFound: The 2023 Green Finance Strategy sets out government’s proposed action to prepare the UK for the physical
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the medication reimbursement mechanism for community pharmacists.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Through the medicine margin survey, the Department assesses whether the reimbursement arrangements pay pharmacy contractors as agreed as part of the community pharmacy contractual framework (CPCF). The medicine margin survey considers what pharmacies paid for medicines by looking at their invoices compared to the amount reimbursed by the National Health Service. Where the survey finds that they have been underpaid, we increase the pharmacy contractors’ payments, and where they have been overpaid, we decrease payments.
Furthermore, where pharmacies cannot purchase products at or below the Drug Tariff NHS reimbursement price, Community Pharmacy England can request that the Department reassesses the reimbursement price. If a new reimbursement price is issued, this is known as a concessionary price.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of medication costs on community pharmacies.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Through the medicine margin survey, the Department assesses whether the reimbursement arrangements pay pharmacy contractors as agreed as part of the community pharmacy contractual framework (CPCF). The medicine margin survey considers what pharmacies paid for medicines by looking at their invoices compared to the amount reimbursed by the National Health Service. Where the survey finds that they have been underpaid, we increase the pharmacy contractors’ payments, and where they have been overpaid, we decrease payments.
Furthermore, where pharmacies cannot purchase products at or below the Drug Tariff NHS reimbursement price, Community Pharmacy England can request that the Department reassesses the reimbursement price. If a new reimbursement price is issued, this is known as a concessionary price.
Mentions:
1: Lord Warner (XB - Life peer) experience outside the NHS, supported by a chief people officer for all workforce issues, and a chief finance - Speech Link
2: Lord Markham (Con - Life peer) Things such as Pharmacy First are good ways ahead. - Speech Link
Found: Fact Sheet ’, Ministry of Finance, Japan, April 2023. 21 ‘Economic Governance Review’, Council of the
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to increase the scope of the Pharmacy First programme.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Pharmacy First was launched on 31 January 2024, and as the service embeds, we will monitor and evaluate the service, and keep the conditions covered by Pharmacy First under review.