Welcome to the Community Pharmacy Surrey & Sussex Website

Suggested Search Terms

Monthly deadline trackerCPSS newsletterLocally commissioned servicesEssential servicesAdvanced ServicesA-Z
Click here to view other pages in A-Z section
Home > A-Z > P-Z

P-Z

Click on a heading below for more information. 

Palliative Care Scheme

This service is aimed at the supply of Emergency Palliative Care medicines, the demand for which may be urgent and/or unpredictable.

The pharmacy contractor will stock a locally agreed range of Emergency Palliative Care medicines and will make a commitment to ensure that users of this service have prompt access to these medicines during the pharmacy’s regular core and supplementary hours.

If you would like to know which local pharmacies provide the service, please email us LPC@communitypharmacyss.co.uk.

NICE guidance on end-of-life care here.

Click here to access the essential guides for service claiming and service information.

For more information

Contact: lpc@communitypharmacyss.co.uk 

PCN Lead Updates Page

Click here to view the PCN Lead Updates Page.

For more information

Contact: lpc@communitypharmacyss.co.uk 

Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA)

Every Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) in England has had a statutory responsibility to publish and keep up to date a statement of the need for pharmaceutical services of the population within its area. This is referred to as a Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA).

East Sussex PNA |  Brighton and Hove PNA  |  West Sussex PNA  |  Surrey PNA

For more information 

Pharmacy Careers

Introduction to Pharmacy Careers Map

NHS Workforce, Training and Education in collaboration with Community Pharmacy Surrey & Sussex, and Community Pharmacy Kent have developed an interactive Pharmacy Careers Map to promote a career in pharmacy. The website can be found here. 

Map Objectives:

1. Provide current and future pharmacists with information related to:

  • The career opportunities available to them
  • The education and training requirements of these roles
  • How to transition between pharmacy roles

2. Support undergraduates and Trainee Pharmacists with decision making around their career.

3. Develop a product that can be used by careers advisors, parents, college students to generate an insight into pharmacy careers.

4. Create a platform to champion pharmacy roles.

5. Prompt an understanding of the wider healthcare system particularly across the ICS.

Share the website to:

1. Promote pharmacy as a career option.

2. Inspire students to want to pursue a career in pharmacy.

3. Showcase the varied roles and impact the profession has on patients and public.

4. Champion pharmacy careers in Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

Audience:

1. Students.

2. Current Pharmacist workforce.

3. Any organisations/stakeholders in the region that would benefit from using/sharing resource.

How can you get involved?

  • You can engage with as many posts/ channels as appropriate for you.
  • We’d love to see support above and beyond the content (social copy, newsletter copy, and creative assets).

Additional ideas could include: Website takeovers, Online polls/ quizzes, College and student networks, Events, Lunch and learn internal events and Local media engagement.

Further resources on a career in pharmacy is available here.

Pharmacy Quality Scheme (PQS)

We will be sending weekly emails to help you complete PQS 25/26.

This week’s resource includes a deadline tracker to help you monitor key PQS milestones – from registration deadlines to audit cut-offs. 

Print this out and have it to hand! 

Week 1 – PQS Deadline Tracker

Week 2 – PQS training tracker

Week 3 – To qualify for a PQS payment, your pharmacy must be registered for both the Pharmacy First and Pharmacy Contraception Services. Contractors must have signed up to deliver the Pharmacy First Service and the Pharmacy Contraception service by the end of 31st August 2025 and remain registered for both services until the end of the scheme, 31st March 2026.

Contractors will not be required to make a declaration for this gateway criterion as this will be verified by a post-payment review of the contractor’s declaration to deliver the services and subsequent registration from 1st September 2025 until the end of the scheme, 31st March 2026. 

Additional resources to support the Pharmacy Quality Scheme 2025-2026 

Week 4 – PQS – Piece by Piece: Have You Planned for Palliative Care Gaps? (Domain 1a)

PQS Palliative Care – Requirement

If you hold the 16 palliative medicines and can support access to parenteral haloperidol

As part of PQS under the Palliative Care requirement it states that  ‘as soon as possible after 1st April 2025 and by the end of 31st March 2026 the contractor must have updated NHS Profile Manager to show they are a ‘Pharmacy palliative care medication stockholder’ if they routinely hold the 16 palliative and end of life critical medicines and can support local access to parenteral haloperidol.’

Note if the pharmacy claimed for the Medicines Safety & Optimisation domain in 2023/24 you must ensure this is updated again for 2025/26 by logging into NHS Profile Manager and confirming this by the end of 31st March 2026 by verifying your account at https://organisation.nhswebsite.nhs.uk/sign-in . If this verification has not been completed a contractor will not have met this requirement even if their profile is still showing them as a stockholder.

For pharmacies completing this domain 

By the end of 31st March 2026, pharmacy owners must have an action plan in place to use when they do not have the required stock of the 16 palliative and end of life critical medicines and/or parenteral haloperidol available for a patient. This must include collated information from pharmacies in their area to be able to aid a patient, relative/carer in obtaining medication as swiftly as possible by redirecting them to the nearest open community pharmacy that stocks the 16 palliative and end of life critical medicines and/or parenteral haloperidol.

To qualify for payment all pharmacy owners must have this action plan irrespective of whether they do or do not routinely stock the 16 palliative and end of life critical medicines listed above.

The action plan must include:

  • An awareness of any locally commissioned services for palliative care including any on call and delivery arrangements;
  • A list of community pharmacies stocking the 16 palliative and end of life critical medicines for palliative/end of life care in their area and noting the ability to check the DoS to find pharmacies stocking these medicines;
  • Details of where parenteral haloperidol can be accessed locally, e.g. through any local commissioning arrangements; and
  • Awareness of other support services that may be useful for patients/relatives/ carers.

Note for pharmacy owners who claimed for the Medicines Safety & Optimisation domain in 2023/24, an update to the previous action plan will be required.

To support completion of the action plan a current list of the palliative care locally commissioned pharmacies has been compiled, this is available by e-mailing lpc@communitypharmacyss.co.uk Note the list of medication for this service does not match that of the 16 listed palliative care medicines for PQS.

Week 6 – PQS – Piece by Piece: Start Tracking Respiratory Interventions (Domain 1c/d)

There are 2 aspects for you to action for the Respiratory component of PQS:

  • Use of a Spacer in Patients Aged 5-15 Years 

By the end of 31st March 2026, the pharmacy must be able to evidence that between 1st April 2025 and the day of the declaration they have:

1) Checked that all children aged 5 to 15 (inclusive) prescribed a press and breathe pressurized MDI for asthma have a spacer device, where appropriate, in line with NICE NG245

2) Referred children aged 5 to 15 (inclusive) with asthma to an appropriate healthcare professional where this is not the case.

  • Referrals for patients using 3 or more short-acting bronchodilator inhalers in 6 months

By the end of 31st March 2026, the pharmacy must be able to evidence that between 1st April 2025 and the day of the declaration that patients with asthma, for whom three or more short-acting bronchodilator inhalers were dispensed without any corticosteroid inhaler within a six-month period have, since the last review point, been referred to an appropriate healthcare professional for an asthma review

If you would like to use our simple Respiratory Intervention & Referral tracker and Referral form template just email us at LPC@communitypharmacyss.co.uk.  

Associated webpages

Resources

Primary Care Networks (PCNs)

NHS England has significant ambitions for Primary Care Networks (PCNs), with the expectation that they will be a key vehicle for delivering many of the commitments in the long-term plan and providing a wider range of services to patients. 

Surrey and Sussex has over 60 PCNs. Read more.

For more information

Profile Manager

NHS Profile Manager is a digital tool which went live in June 2022.

It enables the updating of two different NHS service information sites:

  • The NHS website profile editor and
  • Directory of Services (DoS) Profile Updater.

There is a requirement to confirm the information on Pharmacy Manager at least once every quarter.

Further information is available here.

Promoting Prescription Prepayment Certificates

In light of the rising cost of living, some people are finding it difficult to afford medicines. NHS prescription prepayment certificates (PPCs) could help them save money. To help pharmacy teams raise awareness of these, posters are available to display. Download your PPC posters.

Real Time Exemption Checking (RTEC)

Real Time Exemption Checking (RTEC) is a technical solution enabling the  PMR system to automatically find out whether a patient has a known exemption that can auto-apply to their EPS prescription. If the PMR system confirms an exemption, the EPS prescription is auto-flagged as exempt so that the patient won’t need to make a written exemption status declaration. If the system cannot identify an exemption the pharmacy team and the patient will use the usual process.

More information

    • Find out how your pharmacy can get ‘RTEC ready’ on CPE’s dedicated RTEC webpage.

Repeat dispensing/electronic repeat dispensing (eRD)

At least two thirds of all prescriptions generated in primary care are for patients needing repeat supplies of regular medicines, and since 2005 repeat dispensing has been an Essential Service within the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF).

Originally this service was mostly carried out using paper prescriptions, but as the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) has developed, the majority of repeat dispensing is now carried out via EPS and is termed electronic Repeat Dispensing (eRD). eRD is much more efficient and convenient for all involved.

More information

Safeguarding

See CPPE for Safeguarding training.

Surrey County Council Safeguarding contacts:

Information leaflets from Surrey County Council are available and include ‘keeping you safe from abuse’ and ‘how to report abuse and explaining safeguarding enquiries’.

West Sussex County Council Safeguarding contacts: 

Brighton & Hove City Council Safeguarding contacts:

East Sussex County Council Safeguarding contacts: 

A useful tool is the NHS Safeguarding app which has been developed to act as a comprehensive resource for healthcare professionals, carers and citizens. It provides 24-hour, mobile access on up to date legislation and guidance across the safeguarding life course. The app also provides information on how to report a safeguarding concern and even has a directory of safeguarding contacts for every local authority in England, searchable by region. The app is available to download from all App stores.

More information 

Severe Mental Illness (SMI) Health Check Awareness

A training webinar is available to support pharmacy teams to understand and raise awareness of Severe Mental Illness Healthchecks, if you missed the webinar and would like to watch on demand, please view here.

People with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or other psychosis (severe mental illness) face a shorter life expectancy by an average of 15-20 years, mostly due to deaths from cardiovascular disease, but also from COPD and liver disease. We know that for many people with severe mental illness, their local pharmacist is a familiar and trusted individual who can advise on health matters.

Dr. Lindsay Hadley FRCGP, NHS Sussex lead for physical health checks for people with severe mental illness, led the session that covered why people with severe mental illness have such poor health outcomes and how the health check can make a difference. She talked through how to spot signs of worsening mental health and what to do about it, how you can directly help to improve health outcomes for this vulnerable group of people, by sharing information and reassuring them about booking and attending an annual physical health check with their GP Practice.

People with SMI face stark health inequalities and are less likely to have their physical health needs met, both in terms of identification of physical health concerns and delivery of the appropriate, timely screening and treatment.

Compared to the general population, individuals with SMI

  • Face a shorter life expectancy by an average of 15–20 years.
  • Are three times more likely to smoke.
  • Are three-and-a-half times more likely to lose all teeth.
  • Are at double the risk of obesity and diabetes, three times the risk of hypertension and metabolic syndrome, and five times the risk of dyslipidaemia
  • Recently published data showed that people with SMI were more likely to die of Covid

There are resources on this webpage, including a factsheet which will act as a helpful “cribsheet” for professionals . There is also a postcard available for pharmacists to hand to a client.

Please view the postcard and factsheet below

Service evaluation tool

The LPCs represent local contractors in negotiations for locally commissioned services and have developed a ‘service evaluation tool’ for locally commissioned services to help scrutinise each proposal / service specification.

At the end of the scrutiny process a summary is shared with contractors who have expressed an interest in providing the service to highlight the key points for their attention and consideration. This helps contractors make an informed decision to provide a locally commissioned service, or not.

For more information 

Sharps (patients)

It is the responsibility of local councils to collect and dispose of patient sharps e.g. diabetic needles and patients should be referred to their local authority. Note as confirmed by the SE Pharmacy Commissioning Hub, the exception to this is that used or unused adrenaline auto-injectors e.g. EpiPens can be taken back by the pharmacy and put into the pharmaceutical waste bin.

This document lists local authorities in Surrey and Sussex Sharps disposal contact details.

More information

Signposting

This is an Essential service. It’s the provision of information to people visiting the pharmacy.

For people who require further support, advice or treatment which cannot be provided by the pharmacy, to other health and social care providers or support organisations who may be able to assist the person. Where appropriate this may take the form of a referral.  

Pharmacies are be expected to help people who ask for assistance by directing them to the most appropriate source of help.

For more information

Smartcards (and helpdesk contact details for Surrey & Sussex)

NHS smartcards are similar to chip and PIN bank cards, and their access control provide security measures to protect patient data. Access control ensures only those people who are directly involved in patient care, and have a legitimate reason to access patient medical information can do so.

The local Registration Authority will assign roles onto the Smartcard, and will also set the Smartcard so that it can be used in the relevant pharmacy, or multiple pharmacies.

Each pharmacy team member whose role means that they need a Smartcard should have one; Smartcards should not be shared by staff. All pharmacy staff registering for a smartcard for the first time will have to go through the full registration process, including having their identity verified. 

Are you looking to get a new smartcard or have problems with your smartcard?

Your local Registration Authority (RA) is responsible for issuing Smartcards, and assigning roles.

Details for Surrey and Sussex: Telephone: 0300 561 0429, E-mail: scwcsu.smartcards@nhs.net or further details can be found here.

For more information

South East Commissioning Hub Pharmacy Team

On the attachment available here, please find details on the following:

  1. How to contact the Regional Pharmacy Commissioning Hub Team
  2. Setting up an NHS mail shared email account
  3. Profile Manager
  4. NHS BSA – Manage Your Service (MYS) Portal
  5. Registering for MHRA Alerts
  6. Smartcard Information
  7. Controlled Drug (CD) Information
  8. NHS England Safeguarding App
  9. Waste Medicines Queries
  10. Reporting Temporary Suspensions of Service
  11. Useful Links
  12. Annual Returns
  13. Bank Holidays
  14. Complaints and incidents
  15. Interpretation and Translation (T&I) Services

Stationery

Dispensing tokens and NHS stationery is ordered via the PCSE ordering portal. Once your pharmacy is registered on the portal, you just need to log-in and order. You can to place and track all orders on the portal and see expected delivery dates.

For more information

Summary Care Records (SCR)

The National Care Records Service (NCRS) is being introduced as a new interface available from within the Spine portal link directory to provide national patient information for health and care staff with NHS Smartcards or equivalent. Access the NCRS here.

NCRS enables view of SCR information but additionally view of:

Further information is available here.

Temporary Closures

On occasion, pharmacies may have to close. This may be a planned temporary closure, for example, for the refurbishment of the premises, or an unplanned temporary closure, if, for example, that morning the pharmacist reports they are ill and unable to work.

The Terms of Service require NHS community pharmacy owners to have a business continuity plan for temporary suspensions due to illness or other reason beyond their control and to action the plan when necessary. One action of any plan is to notify the Integrated Care Board (ICB) of an unplanned temporary suspension, or a likely temporary suspension. The MYS portal provides a digital route for notifications.

The MYS portal can be updated with one or more unplanned, temporary suspensions and is editable for 7 days after it is submitted. It can be used for unplanned temporary suspensions and deleted if there is no subsequent suspension of services. At this stage, the MYS portal notification route is optional.  A hard-copy notification route can still be used. This can be found on the NHS England website titled Annex 18.

More information on unplanned temporary suspensions can be found here.

Translating and interpreting services

Translation and Interpretation services are provided to community pharmacies via their Integrated Care System.

NHS Surrey Heartlands

Translation and Interpretation services are available via telephone, remote video platform and when appropriate face to face. The current provider is thebigword. In order for an account to be set up for the community pharmacy with thebigword, a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) needs to be completed. Once this is done, instructions are sent on how to access the Translating and Interpreting services and a fully signed version of the Data Processing Agreement returned to the pharmacy.

If this is not enabled for your pharmacy, contact us at lpc@communitypharmacyss.co.uk for further details.

NHS Frimley

Across Frimley ICB Dals will be providing the following services:

  • Spoken Face to Face
  • Telephone Interpretation
  • Spoken Video Interpretation
  • Non-spoken Face to Face (BSL / Speech to Text Operator / Lip speaking / Deaf/Blind Communication)
  • Non-spoken Video Interpretation (BSL / Speech to Text Operator / Lip speaking / Deaf/Blind Communication)
  • Translation
  • Transcription
  • Proofreading

– About Dals

– Working with Dals

NHS Sussex

Sussex translation and interpretation services for Community Pharmacies – All Sussex GP practices, and Community Pharmacies can now access the same high-quality interpreting and translation services using the same process.
 
The following is available, please visit the NHS Sussex Intranet page to access the support if required:
• Face to face interpreting services.
• Telephone and remote interpreting.
• Face-to-face and remote / video British Sign Language.
• Lip reading and non-spoken interpreting services for people with sensory needs.
• Translation, transcription and ancillary services.
 
Information can be found here.
Translation and interpreting – NHS Sussex (ics.nhs.uk).
 
You can sign up to access the NHS Intranet as a pharmacy colleague. If you face any challenges or barriers when accessing these services, please email sxicb.involvement@nhs.net

Waste - Pharmacy

Anenta Ltd manage the pharmaceutical waste services contract for Integrated Care Systems excluding sharps (please see sharps under S). Note SE Pharmacy Commissioning Hub confirmed that used or unused adrenaline auto-injectors e.g. EpiPens, Jext are excluded from the usual sharps requirements and can be taken back by the pharmacy and put into the pharmaceutical waste bin.

Anenta are your first point of contact for ALL pharmaceutical waste matters.

Pharmacy contractors must register with Anenta Ltd using this short form (you will receive an immediate email confirmation to the address you registered with, then a subsequent email telling you how to use the service).
The revised Anenta guide to managing waste in pharmacy can be found here.
________________________________________
More information
* Anenta is a waste managing agent, not a waste collector and will help you if you have concerns or complaints about missed collections or require additional collections.
* Tell Anenta your concerns about your waste collections and they will contact your waste collector – Stericycle or Cannon Hygiene on your behalf.
* Contact Anenta’s support team on 03301 222 143 or support@anenta.com.
* Needle exchange waste is not part of this contract. This remains as per the service specification in your Public Health County Council area.

Please make sure that you use the correct disposal methods for both medicines and sharps, and do not mix both. Failure to do so could be seen as a breach of your contract with the NHS and/or Duty of Care Regulations 1991 and/or Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Pharmacy multiples/chains should liaise with company managers/head office before registering with Anenta.

Weight Management

Local authority Tier 2 Weight Management Programs.

Whistleblowing

If you have a concern about issues that have wider implications for patients, other members of staff, the general public and/or the reputation of community pharmacy it’s important that you feel able to, and are supported to, raise it appropriately.

CPE has a briefing about whistleblowing, raising a concern or speaking up. All these terms mean the same thing.

Freedom to speak up guardian 

To support contactors across Surrey and Sussex, Julia Powell, our Chief Executive Officer, has agreed to be the Freedom to Speak up Guardian for independent contractors in the area if they wish.

Go to ‘our A-Z  and look up ‘F’ for Freedom to speak up guardian to find out more, and for the procedures for contractors wishing to nominate Julia Powell. 

For more information

 

Can’t find what you are looking for?

Latest news

View more newsSee all

Excellence In Pharmacy Sussex Conference

On Saturday, the 17th of May, Community Pharmacy Surrey and Sussex attended the Excellence In…

9th June 2025

Bundling requirements for the monthly Pharmacy First payment

Reminder from the 1st June the pharmacy needs to be signed up to all 3…

13th May 2025

Spring Bank Holiday – 26 May 2025 Opening Hours

Click here to view Surrey Pharmacy Opening Hours Click here to view Sussex Pharmacy Opening Hours A…

12th May 2025