Every community pharmacy contractor in Scotland will receive £1,000 for adjustments made to their pharmacies during the Covid-19 pandemic, along with a number of other additional payments being issued this month. 

A June 4 circular letter from interim chief pharmaceutical officer Alison Strath explained that every contractor who was on the Boards Pharmaceutical list as of March 1 this year will receive a fixed sum payment of £1,000 “in recognition of the additional adjustments made to pharmacy premises during the pandemic”.

The circular advises contractors of other payments being made to the sector “to regulate the delivery of the remuneration global sum for 2020-21” in the June payment schedule, including an additional £0.6m for delivering the new Pharmacy First Scotland service between January and March this year, £0.641m for smoking cessation activity and £0.582m for the EHC service over the same period.

The latter two payments will be “attributed proportionally to all activity across the year” for these services, the circular explained.   

Ms Strath also advised contractors that an adjusted dispensing pool payment will be introduced for the month of march 2021 only, explaining: “The payment to each eligible contractor will be calculated as a percentage of the available additional pool of £2,413,922 of the base dispensing pool payment – or where it applies the minimum monthly payment.”