Simon Wright / The Pharmaceutical Journal
Community pharmacies in Scotland are to receive an increase in funding of £2.6m in 2018–2019.
The new global sum has been set at £180.96m, an increase of 1.46% on the previous two years.
The announcement, made in a letter from Rose Marie Parr, Scottish chief pharmaceutical officer and deputy director of the pharmacy and medicines division in the Scottish government’s healthcare quality and strategy directorate, said the settlement would also move £20m from the drug tariff into the global sum for this year, meaning guaranteed funding for Scottish community pharmacies of £200.96m for 2018–2019.
The new arrangements also reset the guaranteed minimum margin retained by community pharmacies to £100m. Any amount earned above this will be shared between pharmacies and NHS boards.
Parr’s letter said the government will claw back around £5m of margin earned in 2017–2018, with generic clawback applied at 1.5% from 1 June 2018. But the clawback would be temporarily suspended or adjusted in case of ‘market deterioration’.
In a statement, Community Pharmacy Scotland said: “This settlement will reduce the reliance on reimbursement on the cost of medicines and continue the process of developing our contractual arrangements to reflect funding alongside appropriate service provision to the Scottish population. In the short term we will work with the department to allocate the Global Sum within 2018–2019.
“Over the next few years we will look to continue to work collaboratively to develop services which support our vision and place community pharmacy as a key contributor within primary care.”
