CPNI WILL CONTINUE TO PRIORITISE SERVICE DEVELOPMENT AND THE UTILISATION OF COMMUNITY PHARMACIST SKILLS
including pressures experienced by the network in 2020 and beyond. The 2023 KPMG report explored two key areas. Firstly, the community pharmacy response to COVID-19 and the reasonableness of the Northern Ireland Drug Tariff. Secondly, the costs of providing community pharmacy services in Northern Ireland in 2020/21, 2021/22, and 2022/23.
In the first area, KPMG found that the reasonableness of the Northern Ireland Drug Tariff could be called into question when compared to Drug Tariff arrangements operated elsewhere in the UK. The Drug Tariff used in NI is based on an English drug payment model that does not consider several NI specific factors including community affiliations, higher levels of health and economic deprivation, different population demographics and a different profile of HCPs across pharmacists, general practitioners and dentists.
What is more revealing however is the findings from the economic analysis of the rising cost base in community pharmacy. The report
captures starkly the rising costs being faced in the sector up to and including 2022/23.
Building on the Department of Health’s Cost of Service Investigation findings which showed that the £130 - £136 million cost of providing a community pharmacy service in 2011/12 rose to an estimated £163 million - £170 million in 2021/22. KPMG estimate further cost increases to £177 million - £185 million in 2022/23 which, in turn, increases further when additional modelling for additional staff costs and additional service activity is factored in.
We have maintained for several years that funding from the Department of Health does not correlate with the cost of providing the service and that further investment in the sector is required so that contractors can plan service provision in a viable and sustainable manner rather than in an ad-hoc manner as has been the case in recent years.
As the healthcare landscape and patient needs continue to evolve, the funding attributed to
community pharmacy must also evolve and grow. Increased recognition and investment in the profession is vital to help tackle the workforce difficulties, particularly acute in community pharmacy.
More opportunities need to be created for existing community pharmacists to become independent prescribers and this should be developed as a matter of urgency. Increased training and support are required to allow those in the legacy community pharmacy workforce to become independent prescribers also.
This will enable already qualified pharmacists to deliver patient services in what will undoubtedly be a progressive and innovative services driven community pharmacy model in the future.
The community pharmacy network can provide a range of services that can work to alleviate GP pressures, help solve primary care bottlenecks, and relieve the burden on secondary care, but we need proper investment and resources to make this happen, and we need it urgently.
MORE OPPORTUNITIES NEED TO BE CREATED FOR EXISTING COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS TO BECOME
INDEPENDENT PRESCRIBERS AND THIS SHOULD BE DEVELOPED AS A MATTER OF URGENCY
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