Claiming Payment for PQS
To claim a PQS payment, contractors will need to make a declaration between 9.00am on Monday 5th February 2024 and 11.59pm on Friday 1st March 2024 using the NHSBSA Manage Your Service (MYS) application. Contractors must have evidence to demonstrate meeting the gateway criteria and the domains that they have claimed for by the end of 31st March 2024.
Contractors are advised to complete their declaration as early in the window as possible to ensure that they meet the specified declaration timescales. MYS allows a contractor to start their declaration and then return to it later should this be necessary. Where a declaration has been started but not submitted, it will not be eligible for payment.
Once a contractor has completed and submitted their online declaration via MYS it cannot be altered or returned to the contractor for amendment and re-submission, even if the declaration is made prior to the declaration window closing.
The Respiratory domain has a designated maximum number of points dependent on the total volume of prescription items in 2022/23. For the other two domains, as long as more than 1200 items have been dispensed during the period, points achieved on completion of the domain criteria will be the same for pharmacies in band 2 to 6.
| Band | Band 1 | Band 2 | Band 3 | Band 4 | Band 5 | Band 6 |
| Annual items | 0-1200 | 1201-30,000 | 30,001-60,000 | 60,001- 150,000 | 150,001- 230,000 | 230,001+ |
| Medicines Safety & Optimisation | 0.75 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 |
| Respiratory | 1.25 | 16.67 | 20.83 | 25 | 29.17 | 33.33 |
| Prevention | 1 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| Total Points | 3 | 51.67 | 55.83 | 60 | 64.17 | 68.33 |
The total funding for PQS 2023/24 is £45 million. The funding will be divided between qualifying pharmacies based on the number of points they have achieved up to a maximum £137.50 per point. Each point will have a minimum value of £68.75, based on all pharmacy contractors achieving maximum points.
Payments will be made to eligible contractors depending on the band they are placed in, how many domains they have declared they are meeting, and hence points claimed.
Aspiration payments
An aspiration payment can be claimed within the scheme, ahead of contractors completing all of the work on the various domains. The aspiration payment is optional for pharmacy contractors and not claiming it will not impact on the pharmacy contractor’s ability to claim payment for PQS 2023/24.
Pharmacy contractors will need to make a declaration to the NHSBSA using MYS and indicate which domains they intend to achieve when making their PQS declaration. The aspiration payment must be claimed between 09:00 on 4th September 2023 and 23:59 on 29th September 2023. In making a declaration contractors are accepting that a reconciliation will take place, and that their final PQS payment will be adjusted to either recover an overpayment or receive further payment based on the quality declaration made within the claim window in February/March 2024.
The maximum number of points for which a pharmacy can be paid an aspiration payment is 70% of the number of points within the band in which they are placed. The value of each point for the aspiration payment is set at £68.75 (i.e. the minimum value of a point for PQS 2023/24).
The aspiration payment will be paid to contractors on 1st November 2023.
The aspiration payment will be initially reconciled with payment for the PQS 2023/24 on 1st April 2024.
The evidence of meeting the requirements of each domain should be retained for two years as it may be required for post-payment verification purposes.