Pharmacy Recognised for COVID-19 Efforts as Alliance Healthcare Calls for Continued Expansion of Community Pharmacy Following HM Government Funding Announcement

29 June 2021

Pharmacies across England will be able to claim for COVID-19 costs in line with the recent announcement by PSNC with the HM Government funding. Alliance Healthcare and Alphega Pharmacy is pleased that community pharmacy is now recognised for its instrumental role in the fight against COVID-19 and the success of the COVID-19 vaccination success.

Speaking on the decision, Julian Mount, Managing Director, Alliance Healthcare said: “Since the start of the pandemic, pharmacy customers and patients have recognised the dedication and commitment of pharmacy teams, as the frontline for the NHS for over 15 months. It is great news that now the Department for Health and Social Care is seeing this value too, and we appreciate the hard work from the PSNC and government to support community pharmacy, and we hope to see it go even further.

“In addition to this important step, we must continue to stay focused on recognising the essential role community pharmacists have in improving the health of patients across the UK and create a reimbursement structure that reflects their positive impact.

“The next stage is how we look at the further integration of community pharmacy in England into the primary healthcare team – with autumn on the horizon, winter aliments, flu vaccinations and COVID-19 boosters – we need to ensure the treasury recognise the contribution of pharmacy. Then longer term pharmacy has a key role in helping address backlogs in health, mental health and long-term conditions – and this must be addressed and not forgotten by the relevant stakeholders.”

Raj Nutan, Head of Alphega Pharmacy UK comments: “Notwithstanding the issues surrounding the advance payments, overall, we recognise the work PSNC has done in getting a decision and welcome at long last there is a recognition by the government of the costs pharmacies have had during this difficult COVID-19 period – with community pharmacy going above and beyond, as always, for the UK patients.

The Alphega Pharmacy team will be monitoring and awaiting the detailed guidance from the Drug Tariff with further input from PSNC. In the meantime, we stand ready to support all of our pharmacists any way we can to ensure all Alphega Pharmacy members can appropriately, accurately and effectively claim their costs within a timely window.”