Pharmacy First declaration data issue resolved
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) has emailed pharmacy owners today to say that the Pharmacy First IT system suppliers have resolved issues with the data they supplied to the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal for the February 2024 NHS Pharmacy First activity.
NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care have also further extended the submission deadline for February 2024 Pharmacy First claims; pharmacy owners now have until 11.59pm on Monday 25th March 2024 to submit their declaration.
NHSBSA has confirmed that pharmacy owners who submit their February declaration by the revised deadline, will receive their Pharmacy First payment on 1st May 2024 as expected. Therefore the above extension will not have an impact on when pharmacy owners will receive their February payment for Pharmacy First.
Required action
| Scenario | Action |
| If you submitted your declaration for February and it was accurate when you submitted it | No further action is required. |
| If you submitted your declaration for February and it was inaccurate when you submitted it |
Review your new activity totals as soon as possible (these have been corrected and can be viewed by logging into MYS and checking the previous submissions section within the Pharmacy First claim tab). If these are now correct, no further action is required; you do not need to re-submit your declaration. However, if you believe the totals are inaccurate, contact NHSBSA as soon as possible so this can be investigated before the above deadline by emailing mys@nhsbsa.nhs.uk or phoning 0300 330 1368 (their opening hours are Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm). |
| If you have not yet submitted your declaration for February | Complete the following actions as soon as possible:
However, if you believe the totals are inaccurate, contact NHSBSA as soon as possible so this can be investigated before the above deadline by emailing mys@nhsbsa.nhs.uk or phoning 0300 330 1368 (their opening hours are Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm). |
If you do not submit your declaration by the above deadline, later submissions will be accepted if made within three months of 5th March 2024. However, later payments will result in delayed payments. Any submissions made after three months will not be accepted.
Janet Morrison, Community Pharmacy England Chief Executive said:
“The IT issues over the past few weeks have been really stressful for pharmacy owners and their teams – who have put in massive efforts to support the launch of Pharmacy First. We hope that the problem has now been resolved and will be working with DHSC and NHSE to review service data to understand what impact there may have been on target consultations and wider confidence in the service. We are also pressing for better programme management and stakeholder communications to ensure that contractors are not left in the dark to cope with IT issues when they impact their businesses.
Pharmacy First is critical for pharmacies, for patients and for the wider NHS and pharmacy owners and their teams have done an exceptional job to get it up and running. Government and the NHS need to ensure they can continue to do so by preventing any further teething issues, and by backing pharmacies with the wider funding and support they need.”
