Dear Member,
Please see below a summary of the key points that affect day to day pharmacy operations and cashflow.
1.
Advance payments now include more service activity
You will see higher Advance payments where you have delivered the following services, as consultation fees and reimbursement for supplied items are now included in the Advance:
- Adult Flu vaccination
- Covid 19 vaccination
- Pharmacy First
- Pharmacy Contraception Service, including Emergency Contraception
- Hypertension Case-Finding
Service
Key practical points:
- The Service fee advance is calculated from activity you declare in MYS, so accurate and timely submissions are essential.
- These service fee advances are
paid on the same date as the early Advance for dispensed prescriptions.
- The full value is then recovered at the end of the following month, in the same way as prescription Advances. On your Schedule of Payments this shows as “Recovery of service fee advance”.
- Build this into your cashflow planning so
that any “uplift” in one month is not treated as permanent income.
2. 2025 Community Pharmacy Workforce Survey
- The workforce survey is contractually mandatory for all community pharmacy contractors.
- Deadline for completion is 11.59 pm on Friday 21 November 2025.
3. Other updates that may affect your day to day work
Tadalafil and Vardenafil prescribing and SLS
- For generic Tadalafil and Vardenafil, SLS endorsement is no longer required on NHS prescriptions.
- For branded Cialis and Levitra, SLS endorsement is still required and prescribing remains restricted under Part XVIIIB.
- In
practice, be aware of this when checking prescriptions and pricing, to avoid avoidable queries and delays for patients who cannot tolerate Sildenafil.
End of month batches and couriers
- Do not use any “security PIN required” option when sending prescription batch
submissions to NHSBSA.
- NHSBSA does not hold these PINs and DPD will not deliver batches that require a PIN, which risks delayed processing.
HRT PPC communications
- The
HRT Prescription Prepayment Certificate costs £19.80 and covers 12 months of eligible HRT items.
- It is now available digitally and can be stored in Apple Wallet.
- Use the updated NHSBSA HRT PPC toolkit (leaflets and key messages) to proactively signpost suitable patients who are paying per
item.
FP10 declarations and penalty charge risk
- Remind patients to read and sign the FP10 declaration (or EPS token) themselves when collecting prescriptions.
- Do not
sign declarations on behalf of patients, as incorrect declarations can lead to penalty charge notices for them.
- Use RTEC where available to confirm exemptions and reduce the risk of incorrect declarations.
Prescription Item Reports (PIRs)
- Monthly PIRs can be downloaded from the NHSBSA Information Services Portal.
- They give a detailed breakdown of NHS payments for dispensed items and certain services.
- Only the last 12 months are stored, so download and file
reports regularly for reconciliation, income monitoring and staff training.
