Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS) has accepted an increase in the guaranteed minimum for reimbursement and an increase in Scottish drug tariff funding as part of its 2025/26 community pharmacy funding settlement, it announced yesterday (May 1).
The deal “provides a guaranteed minimum for reimbursement set to £120 million, up from £110m from 2024/25”, it said.
And funding from the part 7 (generic) drug tariff will “increase by £20m to £100 million for the financial year” and will be “delivered as guaranteed service income”, it added.
Read more: Hope for 2025/26 funding deal by April, says CPS
“The delivery of the Guaranteed Minimum Income will be closely monitored monthly throughout the year and further action to support contractor cashflow will be considered if appropriate,” it said.
CPS chief executive Matt Barclay said that the negotiator agreed with the Scottish government “to work on what we could with the financial package when we could”.
“This is effectively the first part of the deal, supporting network cashflow in the event of a medicines market downturn linked to the drug tariff through the guaranteed minimum and crucially mapping further guaranteed money to support strategic service lines for patients,” he added.
Negotiations ongoing
CPS stressed that negotiations are continuing for the 2025/26 funding deal “with a focus on the global sum element of remuneration” and that further details will follow “in due course”.
It said that it made a “joint decision” with the government to “begin negotiations with the initial focus on reimbursement arrangements…to prevent a delay on this part of the deal while further discussions continue”.
“We are continuing to work hard to get more resource into the contract in line with the CPS Board objectives for 2025/26,” Barclay said.
Read more: UPDATED: Global sum up £13m for Scottish pharmacies in new funding deal
Meanwhile, CPS added that it was “delighted” to see that the value of the community pharmacy network in delivering Scotland’s Pharmacy First service was recognised in the First Minister’s NHS Operational Improvement Plan published in March.
The report set out that the government will “further expand” the service to cover more clinical conditions, with the first expansion “by November 2025”.
CPS “will work to meet the commitment made in the plan and improve access to care through the pharmacy network”, the negotiator said.
In February, CPS said that it would be “delighted” for a funding deal to be reached by April but admitted it is “out of [its] control”, after finalising the 2024/25 package in September.
