Annex 1: Overview of the New Contractual Framework for Community Pharmacy
Services are categorised into essential, advanced and enhanced services, with a focus on quality and outcome. The new contractual framework is designed to be flexible and responsive to changing health needs. Over time, it is envisaged that there should be a periodic review of services in the contractual framework to allow for updating or revision of service requirements and standards of provision. As part of this, there may be a shift in the categorisation of services. For example, a service might move from being in the enhanced category to the essential category.
Essential services
Essential services are defined as those services that must normally be provided by all community pharmacy contractors. Such services are nationally agreed and are not open to local negotiation. Activities to be undertaken as part of each essential service and standards of delivery are specified. Those essential services relevant to public health are:
Signposting to appropriate health education and health promotion services
Each year pharmacies will proactively participate in six national/local campaigns as agreed with the Primary Care Trust, to promote important public health messages.
- Promotion of healthy lifestyles for people presenting prescriptions who have diabetes and coronary heart disease, or those who smoke or are overweight: pharmacists will have a structured discussion about relevant health issues such as stopping smoking, reducing alcohol intake, nutrition and increased physical activity
- Support for self care - pharmacy staff will support people, especially those with long term conditions, so they can better care for themselves and their families
- Disposal of waste medicines - community pharmacies will accept unwanted medicines from the public for safe disposal
Advanced services
Advanced services are those which require accreditation of the pharmacist providing the service and/or specific requirements for premises, such as discrete consultation areas.
- Medicine-use review, where a pharmacist periodically and systematically discusses with a patient their medicines; in response to the need to make a prescription intervention
Enhanced services
These are services that will be locally commissioned by PCTs, according to the needs of the local population. Examples include needle exchange and supervised methadone for drug misusers, stop-smoking services and supplementary prescribing. Model templates with benchmark prices to aid local commissioning are being developed for some of the most commonly commissioned services, but these can be tailored to meet local needs. PCTs can also commission other enhanced services to meet their needs, over and above those already identified. The contractual framework gives PCTs the opportunity to plan services in a more integrated way across primary care.
