North East London Local Pharmaceutical Committee

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Havering Presentation on IG Toolkit (16.03.10)
Latest News updated regularly

New Interactive Website Launched for NEL Pharmacists



Alan Castell, Chairman of the NEL LPC on the evening of 24th September, at the Annual General Meeting, launched the new interactive website for community pharmacists in North-East London. The website contains extensive support for pharmacists to develop their practice and provide mutual support in learning and practice. There are also forums where pharmacists can discuss matters of practice, business, regulation education and anything that has an impact on providing pharmacy services.

The site is planned to grow and there will be more pharmacy and health materials as well as materials to work with social services.

Views of local pharmacists and suggestions for improvement are welcomed by the LPC as they believe innovation is the way to stay ahead of competition and make itself more relevant to needs of the local pharmacists.updated 08.04.2010

HSJ exclusive: SHAs to be abolished by 2012

24 May, 2010 | By Sally Gainsbury, Dave West

Strategic health authority chiefs have been told they will be abolished by April 2012, HSJ can reveal.
New health secretary Andrew Lansley has told senior managers he believes there will be no need for SHAs once his independent NHS commissioning board is established. He therefore plans to include legislation abolishing the statutory authorities in his NHS bill expected later this year.
Mr Lansley can only abolish SHAs through legislation as they have statutory duties which will require unravelling.

However, sources at SHAs told HSJ they would start “winding down” immediately, not least because they have been given management cost reduction targets in excess of 30 per cent.
The latest NHS workforce statistics show that as of September 2009 there were 3,752 people employed in non-medical roles at SHAs. Senior SHA figures believe not all of them would lose their jobs as there may be scope for some to be absorbed into local GP commissioning consortia or into new regional offices of the independent commissioning board

updated 28.05.2010 moved 18.08.2010

This statement is being jointly issued by NHS Employers, the NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service (CFSMS) and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC).
All three parties want to see the delivery of appropriate, high quality pharmacy services to patients, while ensuring value for money for the NHS. Work is underway to introduce measures to eliminate opportunities for fraud in pharmacy services that will build on existing local arrangements for post payment verification. Initial work is focussed on the Medicines Use Review (MUR) service.
The use of patient identifiable data in fraud risk measurement exercises is currently not permitted. Work to address this and to introduce counter-fraud measures to supplement local arrangements is currently underway. An exercise that was begun in 2009 has been halted, and no further action should be taken by PCTs in relation to this. Notwithstanding this, any member of staff within a PCT who has reasonable grounds for suspecting fraud against the NHS should discuss their concerns with the local counter fraud specialist. updated 08.04.2010

Prescription Payment Errors

We are urging all contractors to carefully check their Schedule of Payments (FP34) each month and to raise any anomalies with the NHSPS. This is particularly important with regard to:

i. Unusually high variations between the number of forms and items submitted for payment and the number paid.

ii. Any missing payments for items over £300 which do not appear in the itemised section on the FP34.