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NORTHERN

IRELAND

Finally some positive news for members in

Northern Ireland… But is this just a sticking
plaster to wider funding challenges?

CPNI Board announced in recent weeks following intensive
negotiations with the permanent Secretary, a deduction of the
clawback from contractor BSO payments has been suspended
for two months. There will be no clawback deducted from the
November or December 2023 BSO payments.

What does this mean for members?
The deduction in clawback equates to £2.379 million a month of retained
funding for contractors in Northern Ireland.

Although this is welcome news,
there is an estimated deficit

this year of a £20 to 30 million,

and the announcement is only committed to suspending the repayment of
a loan received during the pandemic that will only grow the deficit in funding.

Members that participated in the Numark Northern Ireland advisory board
meeting told us that they have never seen such astronomical prices and
fluctuations, which combined with medicine shortages poses a significant risk
to patient access to essential care. These are not created by wholesalers, but
a reimbursement mechanism which is no longer fit-for-purpose for today’s
medicine supply chain.

It simply cannot be acceptable that CPNI recently warned MLAs, Ministers
and officials that if the situation deteriorates further, there is a real risk that
community pharmacists may no longer be able to afford to pay for commonly
prescribed drugs used to treat health conditions including osteoporosis, high
blood pressure, insomnia, mental health and coronary conditions.

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