Negotiations with the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) and NHS England (NHSE) on the community pharmacy contract for 2024/25 are “unlikely to re-commence before September”, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) revealed on Friday (July 26).

CPE chief executive Janet Morrison said that the DH and NHSE would need to conclude “further discussions” with the Treasury on the funding available to the health service before they could “re-engage” with the negotiator.

The negotiator added that the government and commissioner had “emphasised the financial constraints facing the NHS” during the negotiations prior to the general election on July 4.

Read more: Cat M clawback: Pharmacies hit with £9m monthly reimbursement reduction

CPE said it had made “urgent representations” to the DH and NHSE, as well as writing to health secretary Wes Streeting, pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock and Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Morrison said that ministers in the new government had “recognised the urgent need to re-commence negotiations”, as she warned of the “catastrophic” consequences that would follow a collapse of pharmacy businesses.

“We are continuing to warn the government and the NHS of those risks and of the urgent need to intervene,” she said.

Read more: CPE hires consultancy to ‘strengthen’ funding negotiations

CPE encouraged pharmacy owners to invite their local MPs to visit pharmacies during the summer recess.

It announced that it would have a “fringe event” at the upcoming Labour Party conference and that it would also make a submission to Lord Darzi’s review of the NHS.

 

Money waits

 

In a House of Commons debate on pharmacy provision in Hampton on Friday - brought by Liberal Democrat MP for Twickenham Munira Wilson - health minister Andrew Gwynne said that ministers are looking at the new contract arrangement “as a matter of urgency”.

But Gwynne could not offer MPs an update on the funding as he warned that the findings of the Chancellor’s upcoming “urgent assessment of our spending inheritance” would “inform every spending decision” the government makes.

Last week (July 23), pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock said that the government is “consulting” with CPE on the funding and contract for 2024/25, in response to a question from Labour and Co-operative MP for York Central Rachael Maskell.

Read more: Pharmacies to sound alarms in unison in September protest

The following day, CPE revealed that it had hired a consulting firm to help it with its negotiations, including work on “an economic project aimed at influencing the next government spending review".

The negotiator announced that PA Consulting is “reviewing” CPE’s “approach” to funding negotiations and providing training for CPE committee members.

Meanwhile, CPE yesterday revealed that the government has imposed clawbacks to correct an overpayment of around £9m per month after mistakes in government calculations of Category M reimbursement – without its agreement.

And while pharmacies across the UK prepare to sound an alarm or ring a bell in a coordinated protest action on September 19, the doctor’s union has asked pharmacists to “show [their] support” for GP collective action set to start this week.

 

Delays on delays

 

Earlier this month, CPE said that a return to negotiations may not begin for “some weeks” even in a “best-case scenario” as it aimed to secure “early meetings with new government ministers”.

The day after the election was announced in May, CPE said that it was “accelerating” core contract negotiations, “whether in the coming weeks or with the new government”.

It said at the time that it was “deeply concerned” about further delays to the overdue one-year contractual agreement to replace the five-year deal that expired in April.

Read more: Lib Dem MP demands ‘urgent’ debate on ‘outdated’ pharmacy contract

CPE confirmed in March that negotiations on the new pharmacy contract for England for 2024/25 were “still in progress”.

“Until these negotiations have concluded, fee levels will remain the same and existing service arrangements will continue as previously announced,” it said at the time.

And in February, CPE admitted that there was a “question mark” over whether a new contract deal would be completed by March 31 and warned pharmacies in England of the possibility of an imposed 2024/25 contract.