PSNC will have to convince the government to stump up potentially millions of pounds to extend the new medicine service (NMS) for at least another six months without further evidence because of yet another delay in the evaluation of the service.  

The academics behind the independent evaluation revealed last week that they will not be publishing their findings, originally due this summer, until February next year because they are struggling to recruit enough patients.

The government put up £20 million in March to extend the NMS for six months and PSNC head of NHS services Alastair Buxton told C+D this week that the negotiator was "proactively" discussing with NHS England the likely cost of continuing the service beyond September.

The academics behind the NMS evaluation said they would not publish their findings until February 2014 because they were struggling to recruit patients for the study	More on the NMS PSNC optimistic about future of NMS despite delay       in evaluation RPS: all long-term patients deserve an NMS Government grants NMS six-month stay of execution MORE NEWS
	NHS England was due to base its decision on the future of the NMS on the report it commissioned from Nottingham University in 2011. But NHS England confirmed in May that publication had been pushed back until at least September and PSNC chief executive Sue Sharpe told the Sigma conference the same month that it had been delayed until the end of the year.

Researchers were struggling to recruit the 500 patients required for the study, with only 256 patients on board so far, principle investigator Professor Rachel Elliott told a stakeholder event at UCL in London last week (June 13).

The 12 academics planned to stop recruiting patients, pharmacists and GPs in September and start analysing the data in December, she said.

Professor Elliott told C+D that the evaluation was "going very well" but research takes a long time to complete. "We are working within the resources we were given," she added.

Fifty-eight pharmacies are involved in the study, with pharmacy staff undergoing a day of training before recruiting patients. Researchers spend a day in 20 pharmacies where they interview staff and track patients who have received the NMS. GPs are also being interviewed for the study.