Question 4: Is the NMS payment structure fair?



What you said: Unsurprisingly, pharmacists said they would ideally like to be paid more than the agreed £25 for the service (subject to pharmacy-based targets, see below). Almost a third would like more than £40 per NMS patient, while a quarter of respondents thought £30 to £40 would be reasonable. One respondent to the pre-Senate survey branded the payment structure "bizarre".



What the Senators said: Senators voiced some concerns over the payment structure, which will pay pharmacists on completion of the two-part service, rather than at the initial intervention.



This would make it tricky to work to the monthly, dispensing volume-based payment targets, said Gavin Birchall, superintendent pharmacist at MedicX Pharmacy.

"It will be very difficult to tell how many NMS interventions will be completed by the end of the month," he explained.

"Increasing engagement won't necessarily increase completions, so it's very difficult to gauge how many you will do. We've got to be careful in terms of how much time we invest in giving a good quality service, and getting rewarded for that."



But the basic pay structure was fair, said Mr Perrington. He told the Senate: "I think the payment is absolutely appropriate to what we're doing, and if you look at the total amount that is certainly significant. There are also professional benefits because we're engaging with our customers, which is great as well, so we can prove our worth and value."



What the negotiator said: The NMS should not take as long as an MUR (worth £28 per patient), and payments should reflect that, said Mr Buxton. "For the vast majority of patients where there are no major problems at intervention, the follow-up should be relatively short," he explained.



And pharmacists should not worry about "losing" patients after the initial intervention, Mr Buxton said. "If you at least try to follow-up with a patient, you can claim payment," he highlighted.

"You do get patients returning for their next script as a potential opportunity."



But he stressed: "We need to do this for patient benefit rather than driving the numbers. We mustn't shorten down the intervention to speed up the conversation, because that may take away some of the service's value."

Find-out how much you could be paid for the new advanced service, with C+D's NMS paychecker