Make sure you claim for your Pharmacy First consultations

News story updated on 4th March, following the announcement of the extension of the Pharmacy First submission deadline for February 2024

As we approach the end of the first full month of the Pharmacy First service, we would like to highlight:

• the requirements of the monthly claiming process;
• the requirements and deadline to retain the £2,000 initial fixed payment; and
• the increase in the number of Clinical pathway consultations that pass the Gateway point that are required to be delivered in March 2024 to qualify for the £1,000 monthly payment.

Monthly claiming process

Pharmacy owners will need to submit their Pharmacy First claim for February 2024 via the NHS Business Services Authority’s (NHSBSA) Manage Your Service (MYS) portal by the 15th March 2024*. If pharmacy owners completed any consultations on 31st January 2024, these should also be submitted as part of the February 2024 submission.

Pharmacy owners need to have completed at least one clinical pathway consultation that passes the Gateway point and claim for this by 15th March 2024* to receive their £1,000 monthly payment for February 2024 on the 1st May 2024, along with consultation fees and reimbursement for medicines/appliances supplied under the service.

As part of the Pharmacy First service, all completed FP10DT EPS dispensing tokens showing the correct patient prescription charge or exemption status should be submitted to the NHSBSA as part of the month-end submission, clearly separated within the batch and marked as follows:

• Clinical pathway consultation – marked ‘PF CP’; and
• Supply of urgent medicines or appliances consultation – marked ‘PF UMS’.

Deadline to retain £2,000 initial fixed payment

Pharmacy owners who registered for the Pharmacy First service by 11.59pm on 30th January 2024 need to complete at least five Clinical pathway consultations that pass the Gateway point by 31st March 2024 to retain the £2,000 initial fixed payment; if pharmacy owners do not achieve this target, the £2,000 will be recovered by NHSBSA.

Pharmacy owners are encouraged to review the number of Clinical pathway consultations that have passed the Gateway point provided since the service launched to assess whether they are on track to meet this requirement.

Increase in minimum number of Clinical pathway consultations for March 2024

The minimum number of Clinical pathway consultations that pass the Gateway point increases to five in March 2024; pharmacy owners need to achieve this to be eligible for the £1,000 monthly fixed payment, otherwise they will only be paid the consultation fees and reimbursed for medicines/appliances supplied under the service.

The table below shows the minimum number of Clinical pathway consultations that pass the Gateway point that are required to be delivered each month to secure the £1,000 monthly fixed payment.

*Claims for payments should be submitted by the 5th day of the following month in which the service was provided. Later submissions will be accepted but only if made within three months of the date by which the claim should have been submitted.