Key Summary
- IPCN wants the introduction of a business rates reimbursement mechanism for community pharmacies, as currently availed by other NHS primary care contractors.
- All off-patent medicines should be reimbursed at Drug Tariff generic prices and fully reintegrated into the national margin system.
- Pharmacy teams should be provided contractual, fully funded protected learning time.
The Independent Pharmacy Contractors Network (IPCN) has made a formal policy submission to Community Pharmacy England (CPE) for consideration during the negotiations with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England.
The IPCN claimed that the proposals address identifiable structural weaknesses within the current community pharmacy contractual and reimbursement framework which, if left unaddressed, will continue to undermine contractor sustainability and patient access to NHS services.
Business rates parity within NHS primary care: Community pharmacies are required to maintain accessible premises in order to deliver NHS-commissioned services, yet unlike GP practices and dental surgeries, they receive no reimbursement for non-domestic business rates.
IPCN wants the introduction of a business rates reimbursement mechanism for community pharmacies equivalent in principle to that applied to other NHS primary care contractors.
Protected learning time: Community pharmacy teams are expected to deliver increasingly complex clinical services without any formal entitlement to protected learning time.
IPCN calls for contractual, fully funded, protected learning time that applies to the whole pharmacy team, is delivered within paid working hours, and is supported by funded backfill or planned service reduction.
Single activity fee reform: The Single Activity Fee was designed around a 28-day prescribing environment. Changes in prescribing duration have created unintended financial erosion.
IPCN proposes that SAF be applied per a 28-day period prescription order to restore alignment with the original policy intent.
Branded generic reimbursement reform: Off-patent branded generics routinely reimburse below acquisition cost and sit outside the retained margin framework.
It called for all off-patent medicines to be reimbursed at Drug Tariff generic prices and fully reintegrated into the national margin system.
IPCN said these reforms are necessary to stabilise the community pharmacy network, protect patient access, and support NHS transformation, and urged CPE to adopt these proposals as core negotiating priorities.
