Recently opened pharmacies to receive share of COVID-19 advance sums

August 3, 2020

Following representations from PSNC, community pharmacies that newly opened (including any changes to ownership, consolidations, mergers etc.) between 1st March 2020 and 30th June 2020 can receive advance funding to help mitigate cashflow issues due to COVID-19.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has announced that, as long as these recently opened pharmacies provided NHS pharmaceutical services during these months, they will be eligible to receive a share of the total uplift of circa £370 million in advance funding given to pharmacy contractors. The arrangements for new pharmacies allow contractors who opened in June 2020, for example, and provided NHS pharmaceutical services during this month to receive their share of the average each prescription got from £20 million for each prescription they dispensed in June. Pharmacy contractors should note that the uplifts will not show on their Schedule of Payment, but the NHSBSA will be sending a letter to affected contractors outlining their uplift.

Different arrangements to calculate uplift payments were needed for new pharmacies that opened between 1st March 2020 and 30th June 2020 because of the method use for calculation of the advance payments. For example, pharmacies that opened in June did not receive any uplift payments that were made to existing pharmacies on the 1st July because this payment was calculated as an uplift of the May advance payment.

Those pharmacies that opened between March 2020 and June 2020, and did not receive an uplift by 1st August 2020 or think that their uplift was lower than it should have been when they compare to what is outlined in the determination, have an opportunity until 5th November 2020 to make representations as to why they think they should have received the uplift or a top-up to the uplift they received. Forms put forward by contractors will be considered by the Secretary of State on a monthly basis to the following schedule. For example, if a form is submitted by 5th August it will be considered during the month of August for payment to be made on 1st September, if appropriate. Any missing information on the form may cause delay to the process / payment by a month.

Month pharmacy opened	Timing of FP34C submission	How the uplift will be calculated
March 2020	FP34C submitted in March 2020	Contractors will receive uplift based on the average each prescription got from £300 million for each prescription they dispensed in March
March 2020	No FP34C submitted for March but submitted for April 2020	Contractors will receive uplift based on the average each prescription got from £100 million for each prescription they dispensed in April. However, if you provided NHS pharmaceutical services in March but failed to submit the batch you can make representations to access the uplift based on £300 million using the appropriate form (see the full determination on the NHSBSA website for more details).
March 2020	No FP34C submitted for March and April but submitted for May 2020	No uplift. However, if you provided NHS pharmaceutical services in March and/or April but failed to submit the batch you can make representations to access the uplift based on £300 million or £100 million using the appropriate form (see the full determination on the NHSBSA website for more details).
April 2020	FP34C submitted for April 2020	Contractors will receive uplift based on the average each prescription got from £100 million for each prescription they dispensed in April.
April 2020	No FP34C submitted for April but submitted for May 2020	No uplift. However, if you provided NHS pharmaceutical services in April but failed to submit the batch you can make representations to access the uplift based on £100 million using the appropriate form (see the full determination on the NHSBSA website for more details).
May 2020	FP34C submitted for May 2020	Contractors will receive uplift based on the average each prescription got from £50 million for each prescription they dispensed in May.
May 2020	No FP34C submitted for May but submitted for June 2020	No uplift. However, If you provided NHS pharmaceutical services in May but failed to submit the batch you can make representations to access the uplift based on £50 million using the appropriate form (see the full determination on the NHSBSA website for more details).
June 2020	FP34C submitted for June 2020	Contractors will receive uplift based on the average each prescription got from £20 million for each prescription they dispensed in June.
June 2020	No FP34C submitted for June but submitted for July 2020	No uplift. However, if you provided NHS pharmaceutical services in June but failed to submit the batch you can make representations to access the uplift based on £20 million using the appropriate form (see the full determination on the NHSBSA website for more details).

Posted in: COVID-19 Updates, Dispensing & Supply, Funding & Statistics, PSNC News