PSNC is "nowhere near" agreeing a funding settlement for 2015-16, the negotiating body has admitted.

PSNC did not provide a timeframe for when it expected negotiations to be completed, but chief executive Sue Sharpe told C+D it was "still possible" a settlement would be agreed by its target of April 2015.

The negotiator had "pushed" for alignment of the pharmacy and GP contracts and NHS England had agreed that "we really need to move towards alignment", Ms Sharpe said at the launch of a community pharmacy "manifesto" in parliament on Wednesday (December 3). 

Aligning the contracts was a "vital building block" for integrating the two professions and should be "implemented as soon as possible", she said.

One of the "major obstacles" to GPs engaging with the sector was their fear that they would lose income as a result of pharmacists expanding their range of services, Ms Sharpe said. But losing money was "not in the frame" as pharmacists were focused on "using their workforce more productively at all levels", she stressed.

In October, C+D learned that PSNC had walked out of contract negotiations for the delayed 2014-15 funding settlement when NHS England had called for pharmacists to carry out domiciliary MURs without extra funding.

The same month, primary care organisation NHS Alliance said linking the pharmacy and GP contracts was "inevitable" as primary care needed funding streams that encouraged people to work together.

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