Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS) would be “delighted” if a 2025/26 funding deal was reached by the beginning of the new financial year, it told C+D last week (February 14).
The new financial year begins on April 6, 2025, but the Scottish negotiator admitted “due to the nature of how negotiations progress” when a deal might be struck is “out of our control”.
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CPS finalised the 2024/25 financial package with the Scottish government in September which provided a “6% uplift on the global sum increasing by £13.2m to £232.67m”.
It also increased the guaranteed minimum for reimbursement by £10m, up from £100m in 2023/24 to £110m in 2024/25.
The Scottish negotiator announced last week that the 2025/26 financial package is one of the top three items its board is “currently discussing and reviewing” but that it is still a “work in progress”.
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Its other top three priorities include reviewing the post-registration foundation programme (PRFP) with NHS Education for Scotland (NES), as well as auditing and challenging the NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) payment issues.
With the latter, C+D reported in July that the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) wanted ministers to “bear ultimate responsibility” for payment tech issues that left Scottish pharmacies “tens of thousands of pounds” out of pocket.
CPS in November said to date, it had recovered “over £10 million” for its members over payment issues in Scotland’s new pharmacy payment system.
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It comes as the Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) warned last week that it is becoming “impossible” for Scottish locum pharmacists to make ends meet by locuming alone and “a second job was required”.
In January, CPS called for community pharmacy to be “involved in the early stages of planning each year” for flu vaccination stocks and for a “national NHS pharmacy flu service going forward”.
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In November, CPS won a bronze award for its membership support after helping its members over NSS reimbursements and having its proposal for an NHS Pharmacy First Plus Scotland Service accepted.
And in September, Member of Scottish Parliament (MSP) John Swinney announced the Scottish government will “reform primary care” by the end of 2026 and Scottish community pharmacies are set to offer Pharmacy First consultations for a “wider range of health conditions” as part of reforms.