What are New Medicine Services?
If a patient is prescribed medicine for a long term condition for the first time, with the new NMS services a Pharmacist will be able to help.
The pharmacist will then support the patient over several weeks, advising on the medicines safe use. There are a range of prescriptions covered, all of which can be found by clicking here
When a patient comes into the pharmacy and wants to take part in the service they will have three appointments with the pharmacist over several weeks, either on the phone or in practice.
How much do Pharmacists get paid for NMS?
Working on the base laid out by community pharmacy, locums providing NMS will earn between £20 and £28 for each service they provide.
This depends on the number of patients that get the service as the payments are based on prescription items dispensed. Within this there are a number of payment levels,
Based on information provided by community pharmacy England the payment structure works out like this;
- All completed NMS provided by a contractor that fall below the 10% target will paid at £20 each;
- Once a contractor reaches the 10% target all completed NMS (including those which fall below the 10% target) will be paid at £25 each;
- Once a contractor reaches the 20% target all completed NMS (including those which fall below the 20% target) will be paid at £26 each;
- Once a contractor reaches the 30% target all completed NMS (including those which fall below the 30% target) will be paid at £27 each;
- Once a contractor reaches the 40% target all completed NMS (including those up to the maximum target) will be paid at £28 each.
If you want to know what qualifies as a completed new medicine service you can click here
Have you declared yourself as certified?
If you haven’t, you might be wondering How a pharmacist declares themselves as certified?
As it is a self assessment form, you need to show that you have the necessary knowledge and skills to provide these services, this can be downloaded here
If you are looking to declare yourself as certified it might be worth looking at the range of learning materials provided by CPPE, allowing you to further your understanding of the services. These learnings can be accessed here
Let's talk benefits!
Firstly, for the pharmacists providing the services. Flexibility, because you can provide these services over the phone it means that many pharmacies are adopting a remote structure meaning many pharmacists can complete these services while working from home.
If we are talking from a purely monetary stand point, pharmacists can earn a significant amount by providing these services, while working from home.
Based on the information provided above you should be able to gauge how much you can earn by providing the services.
According to research done (updated 3rd December 2019) by the universities of Manchester, Nottingham and UCL and information provided by “SCI” the benefits to patients and the NHS alike are unparalleled. With more patients adhering to their prescriptions and a significant ease on services creating a significant saving.
“NMS delivered better patient outcomes with 11% more patients adhering to their medication regimen after a few weeks of using this service.
Since NMS was established, over 12,000 pharmacies have delivered 5.7 million consultations between 2011 and 2018. The findings from the evaluation were positive, with researchers concluding that as the NMS delivered better patient outcomes, the overall costs to the NHS were reduced. The team have concluded that the English NMS has saved around £651 million since NMS was set up.”
What is the aim of NMS?
The services look to develop clinical IT systems that support people providing healthcare services, bringing data reported on NMS in line with other NHS services.
This will give more freedom and security for pharmacists providing the services, freeing up pressure in other aspects of healthcare and the NHS.
Register your interest in NMS as a locum pharmacist
