C+D readers are split over the value of the new medicine service (NMS) ahead of the publication of a long-running evaluation of the scheme.

Fifty one per cent of 316 respondents to a C+D poll, conducted between July 29 and August 5, said they would rather see the money for the NMS spent on other parts of the pharmacy contract. The other 49 per cent said the NMS provided a "valuable service" to patients and they would like it to be commissioned permanently.

The results came ahead of the academic evaluation of the service, which will be published next Thursday (August 14) and help NHS England decide its future. 

Rachel Elliot, professor of medicines and health at the University of Nottingham's School of Pharmacy, told C+D on Tuesday (August 5) that none of the findings from the 119-page evaluation could be made public before that date. 

The service has already been extended temporarily four times due to delays in the evaluation, which was originally due to be published last summer. The latest agreement allows contractors in England to potentially claim for patients recruited to the scheme until April next year.

In May, PSNC told C+D that the long-term future of the NMS would only be announced when the delayed funding settlement for 2012-13 and beyond had been agreed. At the time, the negotiator said it was unable to give a "definite timeline" for when these discussions would finish.

NHS England told C+D in March that if the evaluation failed to confirm the service had a "positive impact", it could be terminated with a minimum of three months' notice, with the funding reinvested in other areas of the contract.

In December, PSNC said it was "continuing to raise concerns" over the uncertainty of the service's future, which it blamed for a 13 per cent drop in NMS payment claims between July and August 2013.

	Would you like to see the NMS commissioned permanently?