“Following careful consideration” from Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB’s local pharmaceutical services regulations committee (PSRC), Village Pharmacy has become the fifth pharmacy suspended from the Pharmacy First scheme, an ICB spokesperson told C+D earlier this month (November 15).
“Our ongoing monitoring and scrutiny of claims submitted by pharmacies delivering Pharmacy First highlighted the need to seek some further assurance in relation to the data and activity at…Village Pharmacy in Borehamwood,” they said.
Read more: Pharmacy ‘files case in High Court’ over Pharmacy First suspension
The committee “decided to suspend the provision of the Pharmacy First service by Village Pharmacy with immediate effect” on November 14 “while further investigation is carried out”, the ICB added.
“We will work with the pharmacy to make sure that patients are signposted to alternative services,” it said.
“Outside our control”
A Village Pharmacy spokesperson told C+D that it received a letter from the ICB announcing its “PSRC-led suspension of Village Pharmacy from the Pharmacy First service”.
They said that the letter “cites high volumes, the types of conditions referred and specific software artefacts – outside our control – as reasons”.
Village Pharmacy was England’s leading provider of Pharmacy First minor illness referral consultations in June – providing some 1,477 consultations in the month – according to dispensing data from the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA).
Read more: Revealed: The top ten Pharmacy First minor illness service providers
The July data set revealed that the pharmacy provided 460 Pharmacy First minor illness referral consultations the next month, while the latest data set shows a further 266 in August.
“Our pharmacists have provided an excellent service to patients from referring practices, which is why these practices have continued to refer to us,” Village Pharmacy said.
“We are committed to fully engaging and cooperating with the ICB and will respond to all their questions comprehensively,” it added.
High Court case
Village Pharmacy became the top provider of Pharmacy First minor illness referral consultations after the previous league-table-topping pharmacies were suspended from providing the service.
Last week, C+D revealed that Wembley pharmacy Optipharm is “pressing for clarification” on the reasons behind its own suspension from the Pharmacy First service “through legal channels”, having “formally filed” a case against its ICB in “the High Court of Justice”.
A spokesperson for NHS England in London (NHSE-L) told C+D that it had not had any contact with legal representatives for Optipharm but that it was unable to comment on an ongoing investigation.
Read more: Top pharmacies suspended from Pharmacy First scheme
In September, NHSE-L told C+D that some four pharmacies – Optipharm, Overton & Pickup, Meacher, Higgins & Thomas, and Cavendish– had been suspended from the service.
These pharmacies had been the leading providers of Pharmacy First minor illness referral consultations, according to NHSBSA data.
In July, NHSBSA dispensing contractor data revealed that Optipharm Pharmacy in Wembley completed 3,292 Pharmacy First minor illness referral consultations in April alone.
Read more: Inside the pharmacy doing 3,000 Pharmacy First consultations a month
The staggering figure – the highest in the country – was well above the 17 clinical pathway consultations that the average pharmacy completed that month.
At the time, Hammouda told C+D that the way it operates is “quite different from running a traditional retail pharmacy”, employing “up to 13 pharmacists at any one time” each conducting “six remote consultations per hour”.
