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Contractual matters and funding dominated the business sessions at this month's Pharmacy Show in Birmingham.

THE 2014/15 community pharmacy funding settlement for England and Wales €“ worth £2.8bn €“ would support €more predictable income flows€, help to €remove systemic dispensing at a loss€ and €create equal opportunities for all pharmacy contractors€, PSNC chief executive Sue Sharpe told visitors to the Pharmacy Show.

While she acknowledged there had been €some negativity and decommissioning€, she insisted that recognition of pharmacy was growing in NHS England and the Department of Health. A national minor ailments service and pharmacy access to the summary care record were both real possibilities in the near future, she suggested.

The £2.8bn funding package comprises £2bn to be delivered in fees and allowances, with the remaining £800m to be delivered through agreed purchase margins. Contractors had previously been able to earn and retain additional purchase profits each year.

She confirmed that the new medicine service (NMS) will continue, funded as part of the overall settlement. There will be a new MUR target group €“ cardiovascular risk €“ and a requirement for contractors to provide 70 per cent of their MURs to patients within the national target groups.

Pharmacy contractors will also be required to include pharmacy names in reports of patient safety incidents; give patients advice about the repeat dispensing service; and take part next year in a national audit on emergency medicines supply from pharmacies.

She added that PSNC would continue to strive to further the service framework across four domains: medicines optimisation; supporting selfcare; supporting frail and elderly people; and promoting health and wellbeing.

PSNC believes the deal agreed represents a tough but fair settlement for contractors, recognising the financial squeeze being applied throughout the NHS and wider public sector. The settlement is for one year only and the negotiator is keen to reach a settlement for 2015-16 before April next year.

People, premises & population

To grasp the opportunities presented by the contract changes, Mike Holden, NPA chief executive, urged the sector to make the most of the three key enablers of change: people, premises and population.

€We need to use skill mix more efficiently by empowering and motivating people to make every contact count. We must ensure that our premises meet GPhC standards and are fit for purpose, and be clued up about the needs of the local population,€ he said.

He also stressed the need to keep gathering evidence for pharmacy's health and economic value in the form of case studies, service evaluations and awards, and emphasised the importance of developing strong leadership, starting at practice level.

Clinical relationship

Community pharmacists must be able to develop their clinical relationships with patients if they are to be seen as healthcare professionals rather than retailers, according to Pharmacists' Defence Association chairman Mark Koziol.

However, in order to foster these clinical relationships, pharmacists needed a new contract that €centres on the patient and nurtures a clinical relationship and continuity of care€, he said. It should support the professionalism and autonomy of pharmacist clinicians. The €commoditisation€ of services through targeting was not working and should be ended.

Clarification of the supervision rules was also necessary, so that support staff could be used more effectively.

The appearance and operation of community pharmacies was important to create the appropriate healthcare environment, said Mr Koziol, and the sale of e-cigarettes and pharmacy-only medicines on self-selection did not create the correct image.

He suggested that some of the £22.4bn annual funding for the homecare and care homes provider sectors could be used to fund pharmacy development. Some of the services currently provided under the homecare banner could be delivered by community pharmacists. These included medicines management for GP surgeries, housebound patients and those in care homes.