The Department of Health and Social Care (DH) and Community Pharmacy England (CPE) this week (March 31) revealed that the hypertension case-finding service (HCFS) specification and payments are set for a refresh.
In a letter to contractors announcing the long-awaited 2025/26 funding deal, the bodies said that “updates to the HCFS specification will be made to further align the service to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines”.
The changes will “place explicit restrictions on the number of funded clinic checks consultations a patient can have within a specified time period”, it added.
Read more: Pharmacy First, contraception and BP ‘bundling’ delayed
In a briefing on the new contract, CPE said that the updates will “clarify patient eligibility requirements”.
Clarifications will cover patients requesting “frequent measurement of their blood pressure – which is outside the scope of the service – and groups of patients that general practices can appropriately refer to the service for clinic checks”, it added.
But the number of consultations patients will be restricted to and the date that restrictions will come into place remain unclear.
Read more: New Pharmacy First cash, bands and thresholds agreed
CPE told C+D that further details will follow in due course, while the DH added that the amendments are currently being worked through and will be published at the earliest opportunity.
“Changes will also be made to clarify when it is appropriate for general practices to refer patients to the service for a clinic check consultation,” the letter said.
“NHS England (NHSE) has also committed to re-look at home blood pressure monitoring to further support the diagnosis of hypertension,” it added.
Fee updates
The move came with an announcement that the payment given for hypertension clinic check consultations has been slashed by a third, from £15 to £10.
When the service was introduced in 2021, the fees were based on a pharmacist providing it, CPE explained, adding that the fee adjustment that comes into force this month follows changes to “allow suitably trained pharmacy staff to provide the service”.
Read more: Funding breakdown: Write-offs, service payments and activity fees
However, it stressed that “there is still plenty of potential to provide more ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) consultations within the service” and that the fee for these will be increased to £50.85 – a 13% increase – from April 2025.
The negotiator also revealed that requirements around the “bundling” of the HCFS, the pharmacy contraception service (PCS) and Pharmacy First services have been delayed.
Blood pressure “targets”
Meanwhile, the Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) this week (April 2) told C+D that it is “concerned about the growing number of pharmacists being set individual targets for delivering blood pressure checks”.
“In a recent survey, 73% of respondents said that they have been put under pressure to undertake Pharmacy First consultations,” it added.
“It is unacceptable that pharmacists are put under pressure to achieve numbers of consultations to meet commercial goals, and we are increasingly aware that targets are being introduced around other services,” it said.
Read more: ‘Immense pressure’: Managers impose Pharmacy First targets
The PDA added that it encourages those who “have been set unrealistic targets or are pressured to meet commercial goals that fall outside of the interests of the patient to contact the PDA…for advice and support”.
In April last year, the PDA revealed reports that “daily or weekly” Pharmacy First consultation targets and “league tables” were putting mounting pressure on pharmacy teams.
Check the C+D site for the latest coverage on this developing story
