Lexpos News

As we move into the warmer months, pharmacy teams may start to see people presenting with tick bites and potentially symptoms of Lyme disease. While tick bites/Lyme disease is not treatable under the Pharmacy First clinical pathway for infected insect bites, with patients needing to be signposted onwards, patients may present with a tick bite with an erythema [...]

The post Pharmacy First: Recognition of tick bites and the symptoms of Lyme disease appeared first on Community Pharmacy England.

The process and timeline for this year’s Community Pharmacy Assurance Framework (CPAF) have been confirmed.  NHS England has confirmed that, as last year, the screening questionnaire will run throughout July, and the full CPAF questionnaire will run throughout October 2026.   Completion of CPAF is a requirement of the Terms of Service. Therefore, pharmacy owners must complete the screening questionnaire and, if required, the full CPAF questionnaire.  The screening questions and [...]

The post 2026/27 CPAF timeline confirmed appeared first on Community Pharmacy England.

Pharmacy teams rely on NHS Smartcards to access essential NHS systems. NHS England and Community Pharmacy England are re-asking all pharmacy staff who use Smartcards to carry out a few simple checks now — to avoid disruption later. Some older Smartcards will stop working from 7th May 2026, and others may stop working if contact [...]

The post NHS Smartcards: important checks to keep systems working appeared first on Community Pharmacy England.

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) Provider Assurance Team (PA Team), commissioned by NHS England, will soon start to undertake provider assurance work (post-payment verification (PPV)) with pharmacy owners providing the Smoking Cessation Service, the Pharmacy Contraception Service, Pharmacy First and the Hypertension Case-Finding Service. Community Pharmacy England has been consulted on the verification process and has sought to ensure it is appropriately targeted, proportionate and fair to those pharmacy owners asked [...]

The post Provider assurance work to commence appeared first on Community Pharmacy England.

24 new products (including those with multiple flavours) have been added to the ‘Drugs for which Discount is Not Deducted’ (DND) list from 1 May 2026. Community Pharmacy England, on behalf of pharmacy owners, applied to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) for these products to [...]

The post 24 products added to the Discount Not Deducted (DND) list from May 2026 appeared first on Community Pharmacy England.