CPE ‘expecting’ delayed pharmacy contract negotiations to ‘resume soon’
Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has announced that it expects negotiations for the pharmacy contractual framework, which were originally set to conclude in March, to “resume soon”.
“We expect negotiations on the community pharmacy contractual framework (CPCF) for 2024/25 to resume soon”, the pharmacy negotiator announced last week (September 4).
The comment came with the news that CPE has “met with” new pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock.
“He has been briefed on community pharmacy, including the pressures on the sector, throughout the summer,” CPE said.
It added that it would share “further information” about contract negotiations “as soon as possible”.
And at the annual Avicenna conference in London, CPE’s NHS services director Alastair Buxton yesterday (September 8) revealed that other meetings with contract decision makers are still yet to come.
Buxton told delegates that Kinnock will “this week” have his “first full briefing” with new health secretary Wes Streeting “specifically on community pharmacy”.
Deal delays
In July, CPE said that it was “seeking early meetings with new government ministers” but stressed that formal negotiations on a new funding deal may not begin for “some weeks”, even in a “best-case scenario”.
Later that month, it announced that pharmacy funding talks were “unlikely” to resume before this month.
The delays came after the negotiator admitted that there would be no new community pharmacy funding deal until "after the election" that took place on July 4.
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.
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.
