The NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) is a national Advanced Service to refer patients requiring low acuity advice, treatment and urgent repeat prescriptions to community pharmacies.
The service aims to reduce pressure on the primary and urgent care system, particularly Accident and Emergency and GP out of hours. The service will support the integration of community pharmacy into the urgent care system.
Further information and the original service specification is available on the CPCS page of the NHS England website. Revised documents to reference the GP referral pathway are available in the 'Supporting documents' section of this page.
Amended Directions for the NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service have been made. They apply from 29 October 2020 and will be included in Part VIC of the Drug Tariff from December.
Amended Directions for the NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (PDF: 229KB)
Registering and deregistering for the service
If you want to provide the service, you need to register to use the manage your service (MYS) portal.
If you want to register multiple pharmacies at the same time, email us at mys@nhsbsa.nhs.uk.
If you want to deregister from the service, you will be able to do so via the MYS portal.
With effect from 1 November 2020 the existing GP CPCS pilots will transition to NHS CPCS.
GP referral pathway engagement activity
From 1 November 2020, if you complete the engagement activity as listed in Annex F of the NHS CPCS service specification, you’ll receive a £300 activity payment. Claims can be made from 1 November 2020 until 30 June 2021 through the MYS portal.
Submitting a claim for payment
You will need to use either PharmaOutcomes or Sonar Health to receive referrals and process claims. The MYS portal will be automatically prepopulated with the claim information. You will then be able to verify and submit claims each month.
EPS tokens for exempt patients must still be sent to NHSBSA to be scanned and kept for Post Payment Verification (PPV) purposes.
The NHS CPCS self-assessment framework
The CPCS self-assessment framework (PDF: 469KB) supports pharmacists in reflecting on their knowledge and skills to provide the service.
It highlights the key competencies needed to provide a high quality, person-centred service to people referred to your pharmacy from NHS111.
NHS CPCS Technical Toolkit
The NHS CPCS Technical Toolkit (PDF: 713KB) supports pharmacy IT suppliers by providing an overview of the technical components required to deliver the service.
NHS CPCS IT buyer's guide
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Information for community pharmacy contractors
NHS England and NHS Improvement's community pharmacy contractors' guide (PDF: 349KB)
Supporting documents
You can find further useful information on the NHS England website:
CPCS toolkit for pharmacy staff
View a final draft of the updated advanced service specification (Word: 655 KB), subject to NHS England Gateway approvals due April 2023.