A new Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS) due to commence in April but delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic has been announced.
The focus of the scheme for the first part of 2020/21 will be on ensuring all reasonable measures in response to the pandemic were put in place to protect both pharmacy teams and their patients.
Community pharmacy contractors meeting the requirements – which are actions set out in a checklist relating to their response to Covid-19 – can claim a payment of £1,630 via the NHSBSA’s Manage Your Service (MYS) portal between July 14, 2020 and January 29, 2021.
Any residual funding not paid to contractors within Part 1 of the scheme will be distributed as part of payments in Part 2. Payments will be made by the NHS BSA within a month after a claim has been submitted.
Commenting on the publication of the scheme’s details, Alastair Buxton, director of NHS Services at PSNC said: “During the pandemic, pharmacy contractors and their teams have been the local healthcare heroes within their communities, keeping the door to primary care fully open for their patients. To achieve this, they have had to make many significant changes to the way they have operated.
“This first PQS scheme for 2020/21 has been developed to recognise all that prior work by contractors and their teams and to encourage them to check that all appropriate actions have been taken to protect their staff, patients and the continuity of their service to the community, as we continue our journey through this pandemic.”
The PSNC is currently working on finalising the detail of the Part 2 PQS scheme, which is expected to commence in October 2020.
