NHS England has been considering the short term future of the new medicine service (NMS), in discussion with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee.

It has been agreed that the NMS will be extended to run throughout 2014/15, subject to the outcome of the evaluation. Should the evaluation results fail to confirm a positive impact, the service may be terminated with a minimum of three months’ notice and any unspent funding reinvested in other areas of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework.

This decision was informed by initial findings from the evaluation. The full evaluation findings will be subject to the usual academic scrutiny, with the final report not expected to be published before May 2014.