Beat the squeeze with our Information Services team
Margin squeeze has been felt by pharmacies for some time with tightening of contractual funding, increased purchase prices and tough competition, along with being hit by the cost of living crisis.
At Numark, we’ll do what we can to ease the tension by highlighting the elements of your Numark membership that are available to support in offering a little slack in the margin crunch.
First and foremost, our Information Services team are a goldmine when it comes to providing you with free expert advice on all aspects of the clinical and contractual areas of your business. As part of your membership, the team are available at the end of the phone or via our new Numark chat & help hub, where you can ask them for professional advice, a second pharmacist opinion and how to manage cost reduction with changes to the Drug Tariffs in all four home countries.
As well as being directly contactable, they also regularly publish information that can benefit you in fighting against margin reduction, via dedicated pages on NumarkNet, but will also frequently post important updates via the news section of NumarkNet and the monthly member newsletter, to ensure you do not miss this vital information.
Drug Tariff Tips
Curated by our UK Drug Tariff specialist and Information Services team member Sue Swift, we frequently publish useful tariff tips to help provide advice and guidance to everyday queries that you may come across in the pharmacy and are created based on common queries that are received by our Information Services team.
Access the Tariff Tips library
Monthly Big Hitters
The Tariff Big Hitters are produced each month by Sue Swift, to complement the Drug Tariff Tips. They outline a few of the prominent changes to the current month’s Drug Tariff, including price changes, to bring attention to what you could potentially be losing or gaining.
Do Not Dispense
List of appliances that have been removed from the Drug Tariff and are no longer available on the NHS, it is important to understand what these are so that you do not lose money by dispensing them.
Download the monthly Do Not Dispense
SSPs
Serious Shortage Protocols (SSPs) were introduced in 2019 to manage supplies in the event of a shortage of a medicine.
SSPs set out a clear protocol for community pharmacists to follow if they are unable to source a prescribed medicine without the need to refer patients back to the prescriber.
You will need to consider the SSP and using your professional skill and judgement the supply of an alternative product or quantity is reasonable and appropriate for the patient and that the patient consents to this alternative supply.
Find out more and access all of the current SSPs
Business Planner
The Numark Business planner is designed to support Numark members with meeting the many contractual and regulatory deadlines required for the successful running of a community pharmacy.
Administrative tasks within pharmacy come in many forms including NHS paperwork, Local Authority requirements including claims relating to provision of commissioned services, professional regulation, data protection, information governance, and employment legislation.
Ensuring compliance with each of these administrative activities can be a challenge when combined with the day to day running of a busy pharmacy, whilst non-compliance can result in breach of contract and possible professional or financial implications. The Numark Business Planner aims to support members in meeting these many administrative tasks. The planner is composed of monthly pages each detailing the claims or submissions required within the month along with the relevant deadline. Each entry also details the resources available to support Numark members with complying with the requirement.
For more information and to see the latest Business Planner
Updates when any regulatory/contractual changes come into force
The Information Services team endeavour to publish news articles on NumarkNet to inform our members of any changes that are being implemented as soon as we become aware of them.
Pharmacy Quality Scheme advice including requirements for each domain and templates and checklists
In England, the Pharmacy Quality Scheme is now embedded firmly in the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF), it rewards contractors that achieve quality criteria in the current domains. This year’s scheme, which runs from June 2023 to March 2024, has £45million of funding which will be divided between qualifying pharmacies based on the number of points they have achieved up to a maximum of £137.50 per point.
Wales has a similar scheme called the Quality and Safety Scheme where pharmacies can claim payments for the completion of five main tasks.
At Numark, we will continue to do everything we can to ensure that your pharmacy business remains successful and will continually update you on any changes, or new information regarding the community pharmacy landscape in each of the four nations.
Together We’re Stronger.