The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) is scrutinising “outlier” community pharmacies that have submitted “an unexpectedly high volume of claims over the first few weeks of the service”, which provides lateral flow devices (LFD) tests, it confirmed with C+D on December 20.

According to a December 19 notice published by Community Pharmacy England (CPE), so-called provider assurance teams from NHSBSA, commissioned by NHS England (NHSE), will be deployed to review the claims of “a relatively small cohort” of community pharmacies across the UK that offer the LFD service.

NHSBSA teams will “soon” contact pharmacy contractors that have submitted claims outside the norm or who have registered their pharmacy for the service but did not update their NHS profile accordingly, according to CPE. 

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NHSBSA told C+D that its provider assurance pharmacy services team was in the “planning stages of the assurance activity”.

Contractors will be asked to answer four questions by email about their procedures for the service and their record-keeping, among other things.

According to CPE, “around a further 50 pharmacies” across integrated care boards (ICBs) that seem to be “outliers” in their service provision will be contacted by NHSBSA in January. 

A “wider provider assurance exercise” by NHSE would depend on the results of this assurance process, according to CPE.

 

“This is not going to be a high-volume service”

 

In October, CPE announced that an LFD advanced service would launch in November. 

The service, funded “outside” of the global sum provided by the community pharmacy contractual framework (CPCF), allows patients at risk of severe COVID-19 infection to access LFD tests from community pharmacies without charge.

At the time, Alastair Buxton, CPE’s director of NHS services, predicted that the LFD supply would not be a “high-volume service”.

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Community pharmacies that signed up to the service would receive £4 plus VAT for each transaction, and would have the cost of the devices - a box of five COVID-19 LFD test kits - covered according to the prices set in the November 2023 drug tariff.

Mr Buxton said that community pharmacies that chose to provide the service should find it “straightforward for pharmacy teams to get up and running”.

But NHSBSA’s assurance activity suggests that some community pharmacies perhaps found it a little bit too easy.

 

“Qualifying conditions” only

 

According to CPE’s service FAQ page, patients could receive free LFD test kits only after the pharmacy team had confirmed that they had at least one risk factor for progression to severe COVID-19. 

This would be done by checking an NHS letter, confirming that the patient had a “qualifying condition” during a consultation, or checking the clinical records held by the pharmacy.

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CPE’s FAQ page notes that a pharmacy contractor choosing to run the service needed to keep detailed records of its supply of LFD test kits as well as reporting the supply on the NHSBSA’s MYS (manage your service) portal.

NHSBSA told C+D that it would be able to answer detailed questions about the assurance process in the new year.