UPDATED: Global sum up £13m for Scottish pharmacies in new funding deal
Funding for Scottish pharmacies will increase by some £13.2 million, with an additional £10 million in guaranteed reimbursement, the Scottish negotiator has revealed.
“The Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS) board has of yesterday accepted a financial offer for 2024/25 from the Scottish government on behalf of Scotland’s 1,243 pharmacies,” CPS today (September 27) revealed.
“The accepted offer provides a 6% uplift on the global sum increasing by £13.2m to £232.67m,” CPS said.
It added that the guaranteed minimum for reimbursement has been increased by £10m – up from £100m in 2023/24 to £110m in 2024/25.
Read more: CPS primes Scottish pharmacies for disappointing funding deal
CPS chief executive Matt Barclay said that the negotiator is "pleased to get the deal finalised and [hopes] that this goes some way in alleviating pressures on the community pharmacy network".
“Further details will follow on this year's financial settlement in due course,” CPS added.
No “significant service development”
CPS revealed that while the funding bump will provide a “period of stability, it will not support significant service development this year”.
“This deal has been long awaited and it has taken considerable effort on both sides of the negotiating table to reach a mutually acceptable solution,” it said.
The negotiator added that it was “determined to land a deal that provides adequate conditions for stability in the network” – “regardless of the Scottish government’s current financial position”.
Read more: CPE ‘expecting’ delayed pharmacy contract negotiations to ‘resume soon’
And it said that it “recognises while this relieves some pressure with respect to the growing business costs that pharmacy contractors have faced this year, these pressures are continual and remain a priority for future negotiations”.
“Only by maintaining relationships and upholding trust with Scottish government colleagues, has this deal been reached,” it stressed.
Contract chaos
During negotiations in July, Barclay said that CPS was “prepared to walk away and illustrate the consequences of not being able to reach an agreement”.
At the time, he warned that the Scottish government is facing a “struggle to balance the books” with this year's budget “even more stretched”.
Read more: DH keeps silent on funding talks restart as minister claims ‘urgency’
The effect of the government’s financial worries is that concluding this year’s negotiations on the contract for Scottish pharmacies had been “challenged” and the relationship between government and CPS “tested”, he added.
Meanwhile, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) this month announced that it expects negotiations for the pharmacy contractual framework, which were originally set to conclude in March, to “resume soon”.
Read more: CPW welcomes 6% funding increase for Welsh community pharmacies
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.
Pharmacies in Wales have also this month secured a “6% increase in community pharmacy funding for the current year”.
