Increases in payment thresholds are 'attack on weakest'
Businesses could suffer from the 2.9 per cent rise in practice and establishment funding boundaries, say contractors and accountant Umesh Modi
An increase in the threshold for practice and establishment payments could “wipe out” some small independent businesses, contractors and finance experts have warned.
The threshold for these payments will increase 2.9 per cent from next month as part of a package of funding changes for pharmacies in England announced by PSNC on Monday (March 23).
From April, the minimum dispensing volume pharmacies will have to reach to receive an establishment payment and item-based practice payments will rise from 2,430 items per month to 2,500. The rise in the threshold for these payments was a recognition of increasing prescription volumes and was in line with “routine annual increases”, PSNC added.
Contractor Elizabeth Hopkins, a former PSNC regional representative, said the threshold changes could “wipe out” small independents, with some standing to lose money “through no fault of their own”. She accused PSNC of “attacking the weakest” pharmacies and hitting patients in deprived areas.
A community pharmacist posting on the C+D website as SP Ph agreed that pharmacists dispensing between 2,430 and 2,500 items would “lose big” and were potentially “doomed”.
Partner at accountancy firm Silver Levene Umesh Modi told C+D the threshold changes signalled the "final nail in the coffin for many small pharmacies", because they could lose the full £23,278 per annum establishment payment if they dispensed less than 2,500 items per month.
"This is not an insignificant sum for many pharmacies that are barely surviving at present, and may result in some closures," he warned.
The changes to payment thresholds was one of several funding changes announced by PSNC on Monday, including: a £2,000 bonus for all pharmacies, to make up for a shortfall in generics margins; and a 4.4p rise in practice payments to 53.5p per item from April.
How will the threshold changes affect your pharmacy?
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