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Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS) and the Scottish government have agreed an uplift of £12.3m in funding for the country’s 1,256 pharmacies for 2023/2024, it has been announced.
The agreement comes after CPS rejected an initial funding offer from the government in May 2023, which it said was “not enough to keep our world-leading services running”.
The CPS later warned in June 2023 that without a significant funding boost, pharmacies would have to cut services and opening hours.
However, on 20 July 2023, CPS said in a statement that it had “accepted a financial offer from Scottish government”, which it said included a “6% increase on the global sum; guaranteed minimum of £100m; [and] mapped money of £80m”.
The Scottish government confirmed in a statment to The Pharmaceutical Journal on 21 July 2023 that the increase to the global sum amounts to £12.3m, which it said is its “largest uplift to date”.
The deal comes after CPS and the government agreed a three-year settlement for the period between 2020/2021 and 2022/2023, with a fixed percentage uplift of 2.5% in each of the three years and £40m in mapped funding.
Adam Osprey, policy and development pharmacist at CPS, told The Pharmaceutical Journal on 21 July 2023: “Both [Scottish government] and CPS would have liked to agree another multi-year deal but the conditions were not right. These were our normal negotiations, just protracted as they were more challenging than some previous years.”
The CPS added in a statement that it “broadly welcomes the offer as adequate to support the aim of a stable and predictable community pharmacy network”.
“It is also noted that further discussion on the detail is required, including a need for a responsive cash flow protection mechanism, and the specifics of the distribution of the global sum.
“This offer has been the result of protracted but constructive negotiations with our government partners and takes the network to a place of adequate financial stability,” the statement said.
A spokesperson for the Scottish government said: “We are pleased that the CPS board has accepted what is the largest uplift to date to the global sum — £12.3 million.
“We will continue to work with CPS, ensuring patients have access to the full range of pharmaceutical care services. Full details of the funding arrangements for 2023/2024 will be published in the coming days.”
