Funding settlement due 'in the next week', NHS England says
Global sum will increase 13 per cent to £2.8bn, anonymous source tells C+D in advance of official annoucement
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An announcement on the long-awaited funding settlement for pharmacy in England is due "in the next week", NHS England has told C+D.
The news comes a day after an anonymous source told C+D the settlement would see the global sum increase 13 per cent, by £314 million to £2.8 billion.
As part of the agreed settlement for 2012-13 and beyond – yet to be confirmed by PSNC or NHs England – category M funding will be increased by £10m a month, £870 per pharmacy, the source said yesterday (September 17). The new medicines service (NMS) would become part of the sector's core funding and there would be a reduction in fees and allowances, the source said.
Pharmacists would be required to deliver at least 75 per cent of medicine use reviews (MURs) to patients within the national target groups, an increase from the current level of 50 per cent, the source added.
NHS England could not confirm the details today (September 18) but said the sector would be "getting something in the next week", while PSNC could not comment.
The increase in the global sum from the £2.486bn agreed in the October 2012 interim arrangements to £2.8bn was first mooted by NHS commentator Roy Lilley in May. The sector has been waiting for a funding agreement since the interim arrangements were introduced in October 2012. In February of last year, PSNC told pharmacists they could expect a new funding agreement before the end of last summer. By June it had pushed the deadline back to autumn.
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