Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2016 to Question 27141, what estimate he has made of the number of independent pharmacies which will lose their NHS support funding as a result of the Pharmacy Access Scheme.

Alistair Burt

We have been in discussions with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) since December 2015 regarding the Government’s proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond. In parallel, we have sought views on our proposals from other pharmacy organisations and from patient groups. The details of the Pharmacy Access Scheme, including any criteria and a timetable for implementation, form part of this consultation.

We announced on 16 March 2016 that the consultation period was to be extended to allow more time to develop the proposed changes with the PSNC and others. It will now close on 24 May 2016.

Once we have carefully considered the outcomes from the consultation, we are looking to communicate final decisions as soon as possible, so that pharmacy contractors are fully informed some months before the funding reduction starts from October 2016.