The delayed national clinical audit will roll out across pharmacies in England from March 23, PSNC has announced.

PSNC said it was "very disappointed" the audit on emergency medicines supplies, originally due to start on Monday (March 9), had been delayed but confirmed it would still go ahead this month.

PSNC explained that NHS England had not been able to get the paperwork through its internal governance procedures in time, and the audit would now run across two periods: March 23 to April 5, and April 6 to April 19.

LPCs would advise contractors on which of the two periods they should use to conduct their audit, PSNC said.

PSNC head of NHS services Alastair Buxton said the audit, which will involve pharmacies collecting data to show how their provision of emergency supplies changes during weekends and bank holidays, was an important part of the 2014-15 funding settlement as it could "make the case" for the commissioning of an emergency supply service. "It is a pity the wider implementation was somewhat overshadowed by delays, but we hope pharmacies will now be able to prepare for the audit," he said.

Contractor Bharat Patel, a member of PSNC's negotiating team, said the delays had been "exasperating" for pharmacists and the negotiating body had "stressed to NHS England the importance of giving contractors adequate time to prepare for these sort of things".

PSNC had now seen the paperwork and thought the audit would be "straightfoward for pharmacy teams to carry out", he added.

 

 

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