It’s NEW!! Community Pharmacy Consultation Service (CPCS)
The NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) launched this week (29 October), marking a significant milestone for community pharmacy and the NHS.
This new service enables NHS 111 to refer patients to community pharmacies when they have a minor illness or need an ’emergency supply’ of a medicine that they have previously been prescribed. The aim is to help relieve pressure on the wider NHS and speed up patient access to treatment by making use of pharmacists’ core knowledge and skills.
Encouraging numbers of community pharmacies have already signed up to offer the service across Surrey & Sussex. Any pharmacy yet to do so has until 30 November to register if they want to receive a transitional payment of £900.
Commenting on the launch of the service, James Wood, chief executive at Community Pharmacy Surrey & Sussex said:
“The go-live of the NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service is an exciting development and the start of community pharmacies in England becoming the central channel for how the NHS manages urgent care minor illness. We have seen a high level of engagement from pharmacies across the South East to provide good coverage. It will showcase the expertise of community pharmacists and the valuable work that pharmacies can do for their communities.
“We have worked closely with the NHS and other urgent care providers to help launch the service. We hope to continue our collaborative efforts in future years, as the service develops nationally, but implemented regionally, to include referral from GPs, and as pharmacies become recognised as the place to go for urgent care minor illness, to cover self-referral by patients themselves”.
For more information
- Here is the service specification for the NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS).
- Colleagues at PSNC have developed a checklist to help community pharmacy get ready to provide CPCS.
- Here is a list of newly created guides for using PharmOutcomes with CPCS
- A short animation on CPCS has been developed as part of the training for NHS 111 call advisers, but it is also an excellent way to introduce pharmacy team members to the service. (Find the video: go to this page and scroll down to CPCS webinar and NHS 111 animation).
- The Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE) has a range of training resources which you might like to use to continue to prepare for CPCS, including a self-assessment framework which will help community pharmacists identify gaps in thier knowledge. We recommended all pharmacists use this framework to plan their learning ahead of providing the service.
