Community Pharmacy England (CPE) today (September 30) revealed that the requirement to provide one ABPM consultation per month as part of the “bundling” requirements to achieve a Pharmacy First fixed monthly payment will be “delayed”.
According to the negotiator, it has agreed with the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) and NHS England (NHSE) that the bundling requirement “will not go ahead from October 1 as originally planned”.
But it remains unclear when the change will come into force.
Read more: Pharmacies may ‘stop providing’ Pharmacy First over bundling rules
“We will be having further discussions with the DH and NHSE on the best way forwards,” CPE said.
It explained that the decision to delay the requirement came after “many pharmacy owners and their teams [reported] that they struggle to get patients to agree to ABPM following a high clinic blood pressure reading”.
CPE shared this evidence with the DH and NHSE, alongside its own “representations”, over the course of the “last few months”, it added.
“Little notice”
“While the decision by ministers provides little notice to pharmacy owners of this change, we hope the news will be welcomed by them,” the negotiator said.
It suggested that the “future addition” of “home blood pressure monitoring” to the hypertension case-finding service (HCFS) could be an “appropriate way to meet the needs of patients who cannot tolerate or reject the offer of ABPM”.
This would also reflect the way “many general practices” confirm a diagnosis of hypertension, it added.
Read more: Pharmacy First, contraception and BP ‘bundling’ delayed
CPE stressed that it will “continue to discuss” these issues with the DH and NHSE “over the coming weeks” as part of a “wider review” of the HCFS requirements under the 2025/26 pharmacy contract.
The bodies will “seek to agree an appropriate way forward for the benefit of patients, the NHS and pharmacy owners”, it said.
Read more: Pharmacy First, contraception and BP check services ‘bundled’ from 2025
It comes after the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) warned in June that “the challenge of providing regular ABPM checks” could prove “insurmountable for many pharmacies”.
Instead, it recommended at the time that the government “change the requirement for ABPM, allowing home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM) as an alternative to support patients who do not wish to have ABPM”.
