The necessary changes have been made to The Pharmaceutical Services (Advanced and Enhanced Services) (England) Directions 2013 to allow the following things to happen:

• The New Medicines Service (NMS) is being extended to enable community pharmacies to continue to provide this service through to the 31st March 2014. 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 January Drug Tariff.The negotiations on overall community pharmacy contractual framework funding, on-going with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, will consider the longer-term future of NMS.

• An addition to the list of pharmacy enhanced services that NHS England is authorised to commission to enable commissioning of an Emergency Supply Service. NHS England area teams will now be able, where appropriate, to commission this service over the winter period as part of community escalation arrangements in line with ‘Community Pharmacy – helping with winter pressures’ which was published on 2^nd December 2013.