EXCLUSIVE

Local contracts are the future of pharmacy funding, according to the Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA).

Paying pharmacies based on dispensing volume “cannot continue”, as the sector will soon face “very serious challenges” to its NHS funding, PDA chairman Mark Koziol told C+D last week (November 27).

Mr Koziol spoke to C+D at an event celebrating the success of Priory Pharmacy in Dudley, West Midlands. The pharmacy provides a range of services under a locally-commissioned contract, including a needle exchange, a minor ailments scheme and diabetes screening.

Instead of being paid through the national pharmacy contract, the business receives a lump sum from its local NHS England regional team to deliver services and dispense items as required, Mr Koziol said. 

The pharmacy – which is overseen by a steering board that includes the pharmacy team and members of the community – does not receive a dispensing fee, Mr Koziol explained.

Under its local pharmaceutical services contract, the pharmacy was originally paid £93,000 per year. This funding has increased and – combined with extra services the pharmacy is paid to deliver by local commissioners – it now receives more than £300,000 a year, Mr Koziol told C+D.

The "beauty" of these contracts is that they are "established nationally, but specified locally", Mr Koziol said.

"Desperately needed" services

Tailoring service-based contracts to the needs of local populations "should be the way forward" because they ensure patients can access "desperately needed" services, Mr Koziol said.

“The needs of different communities, and the needs of different postcodes, have to be met in different ways," he told C+D.

Most pharmacists are "working really hard, but they’re not working smart", because their funding means they are "paid so little to do so much dispensing that [they] don’t have time to deliver the services agenda”, he added.