In a statement last week (January 31) on its outlook for 2018, Capita said “delays in decision making and weakness in new sales”, meant there is "likely" to be a “significant negative impact on profits”.

On the day of the announcement Capita’s shares dropped almost 50%.

Despite this, Capita told C+D: “All pharmacy services are working as expected and planned, and we are committed to delivering primary care support services.”

Asking on behalf of a concerned contractor, C+D approached NHS England for reassurance Capita will continue to process pharmacies' payments.

The commissioner responded: “NHS England has a wide range of business continuity plans that cover a wide range of operations.”

Capita's history with pharmacy

NHS England awarded services provider Capita a contract to provide support services for pharmacies and general practices in September 2015, which is known as Primary Care Support England.

C+D reported in 2016 that issues with Capita had left contractors dealing with late payments for enhanced services and delayed paperwork relating to pharmacy ownership changes. In April last year, NHS England set up an email address for contractors to request “goodwill payments” if they had suffered from Capita’s failings.

“Lack of confidence in Capita”

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) told C+D last Friday (February 2) it is working with Capita to "implement changes to improve the level of service" contractors receive from the provider.

Gordon Hockey, PSNC director of operations and support, said: “We are working with local pharmaceutical committees, asking them for examples of problem cases and to check their experiences of Capita.”

Capita service provision was “very poor” in the spring of 2016, he pointed out, although since the summer of 2017 Capita's handling of market entry requests from pharmacies “has been better”. But there “continue to be failings with notifications associated with market entry applications”, Mr Hockey said.

“There is a lack of confidence in Capita,” Mr Hockey added.

National Audit Office’s investigation

The National Audit Office (NAO) launched an investigation in December into the management of NHS England’s contract with Capita, with the report due this spring.

It aims to investigate the "business objectives of the contract", the "service performance to date" and "the root causes and extent of any service failures".

Mr Hockey said PSNC is “providing information” to the NAO’s investigation.