NHSE&I announces support for community pharmacy integration
NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE&I) have announced funding for Integrated Care System (ICS) based community pharmacy integration leads.
Money from the Pharmacy Integration Fund (PhIF) will be used to fund the leads for two years, from 2022/23. NHSE&I have said these leads will be instrumental in spearheading the implementation of community pharmacy services locally and help support the transition to ICS.
The PhIF will also be used to:
- support general practice with implementing the GP Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS);
- create new Regional Senior Pharmacy Integration roles that sit under the Regional Chief Pharmacists; and
- support NHS hospitals for two years with implementing referrals to community pharmacy services, such as the Discharge Medicines Service and the Stop Smoking Advanced Service.
Responding to this announcement, PSNC’s Director of NHS Services, Alastair Buxton, said:
“Better integration of community pharmacy and its services within the wider health and care system is a key aim of PSNC and is at the heart of the agreed programme within the 5-year CPCF. This integration requires relationships to be developed or enhanced with colleagues in Primary Care Networks (PCNs), at place level and within ICS; anything that can help facilitate this, such as NHSE&I’s planned investment in ICS integration leads, is to be welcomed.
“There is also a need for investment to support community pharmacy PCN Leads to work with clinical directors and others in their PCN to improve team working and collaboration to the benefit of patients. We sought such investment from outside the CPCF global sum in the recent negotiations and while such funding was not available, we will continue to push for that as an important enabler of local integration.”