Scotland’s community pharmacy negotiators are “prepared to walk away and illustrate the consequences of not being able to reach an agreement”, Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS) chief executive Matt Barclay said in a blog published yesterday (July 30).

Barclay said that the Scottish government is facing a “struggle to balance the books” with this year's budget “even more stretched”. 

Read more: Scotland’s model for pharmacy offers lessons for England’s future

The effect of the government’s financial worries is that concluding this year’s negotiations on the contract for Scottish pharmacies has been “challenged” and the relationship between government and CPS “tested”, he added.

He acknowledged that the ongoing contract delays are “not helpful” for contractors facing rising costs and needing “certainty to support investment in their businesses”.

 

“Exhaust all avenues”

 

Barclay said that “insufficient funding” may lead to pharmacies providing fewer services or reducing the “availability of services”, which he said was “understood on both sides of the negotiating table”.

“The CPS board and negotiating team will exhaust all avenues before going down any other path,” he added.

Read more: £400m guaranteed income for Scots pharmacies as 2023/24 details emerge

Despite the ominous tone, Barclay hailed the strength of the relationship between CPS and the Scottish government and ended his blog by saying that “despite a prolonged negotiation period, discussions remain constructive”.

C+D asked CPS when it anticipated negotiations would conclude, but a spokesperson declined to answer, saying that “negotiations remain collaborative”.

 

"Excellent relationship"

 

Scotland’s public health minister Jenni Minto told C+D today (July 31) that the Scottish government “has an excellent relationship” with CPS.

“Our negotiations are always held in good faith with the shared aim of putting financial arrangements in place that best support Scotland’s exemplary community pharmacy network,” Minto said.

Read more: Scotland to see ‘largest ever' £12.3m global sum uplift, government reveals

She added that the negotiations should produce a “funding package that is sustainable for both the community pharmacy network and the Scottish government.”

Minto said that the government hopes that the “ongoing” negotiations “will be concluded as soon as possible”.

 

Contract latest

 

Last week, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) announced that 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”.

This week, C+D reported that mistakes in government calculations of Category M reimbursement mean that the sector will face clawbacks to correct an overpayment of around £9 million per month.

Read more: Pharmacy funding talks ‘unlikely’ before September, says CPE

And in August last year, details of Scotland’s 2023/24 funding package for community pharmacy revealed that the global sum remuneration rose by 6% to £219.5 million, while “guaranteed income” from the drug tariff remained at £80m.

The previous month, the Scottish government revealed that it was “pleased” that the negotiator had accepted a £12.3m uplift to the global sum, which it said was “the largest uplift to date”.

This came after Scotland’s community pharmacy negotiator turned down an initial financial package from Holyrood in May that year.