News

New Medicine Service extended

The New Medicine Service (NMS) is being extended to 31 December 2013.

The service provides extra support, advice and guidance through community pharmacies for patients that are newly prescribed a medicine for specific long-term conditions.

The NMS was implemented as a time-limited service commissioned until March 2013 to improve medicine adherence and outcomes for patients. It was previously extended to 30 September 2013.

At the request of NHS England, Department of Health Ministers have agreed to make the necessary amendment to The Pharmaceutical Services (Advanced and Enhanced Services) (England) Directions 2013, which are expected to be published in the October Drug Tariff, to extend the service to 31 December.

This means that community pharmacies can continue to recruit new patients to the service until 31 December 2013 and will receive payment for this even where the service to patients is completed in January or February 2014.

The negotiations on the overall community pharmacy contractual framework funding are on-going with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee and these discussions will consider the longer-term future of the NMS.

A formal academic evaluation of the NMS will report in February 2014 and the outcomes of that evaluation will also inform decisions on the longer-term future of this service.

More information about the NMS is available here.