Archives: Contractor Email

Dear Contractor
We are aware that some pharmacies are currently unable to access the e-form.

HSCB IT colleagues are investigating this issue. HSCB Pharmacy & Medicines Management team will inform you when the issue has been resolved.

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF
DR. GARETH C. GILVARY
Governance & Support Pharmacist

This update contains important information for community pharmacy teams, including details of the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

BSO ALERTS 

CPNI ALERTS 

HSCB ALERTS 

Please bring this to the attention of your pharmacy team(s).
Pharmacy team(s) can keep updated via CPNI’s Contractor Calendar or Contractor Emails.

Or report medicine shortages or pricing issues via the CPNI’s Medicine Shortage Reporter.

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF 
DR. GARETH C. GILVARY
Governance & Support Pharmacist
Dear Colleague
Please find correspondence HERE for the attention of all Community Pharmacies offering Living Well service, from HSCB Pharmacy & Medicines Management.

SUMMARY

  • The first campaign of 2021/2022, Know Your Units, finished on 31 July 2021.
  • Pharmacies offering Living Well are required to complete an online evaluation survey for this campaign.
  • It is vital that all pharmacies contracted to provide “Living Well” submit their evaluation survey as it allows HSCB to collate data to demonstrate the value and impact of the service to other sectors. Additionally, it supports future commissioning and service development. 
  • The HSCB monitors compliance with the service requirements, in particular evaluation submission. Should your pharmacy fail to submit an evaluation survey response, the HSCB reserves the right to recover all, or part of, this funding via an adjustment to the pharmacy’s BSO payment account.

ACTION

  • Contractors are asked to review the correspondence.
  • Pharmacies offering Living Well service are required to complete an evaluation survey, for the ‘Know Your Units‘ campaign available HERE by 20 September 2021.
  • If you have already completed this, you do not need to do anything further. 

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF
DR. GARETH C. GILVARY
Governance & Support Pharmacist

Dear Colleague
The Health and Social Care Board (HSCB) has, today, launched a consultation in respect of a Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) model which can be found HERE.

The aim of the model is to better enable decision making within the current regulatory frameworks around the provision of pharmaceutical services relative to need in localities.

It is widely recognised that community pharmacies play an important role, not only in the supply and dispensing of medicines, but increasingly in providing a first point of contact with the health service. Over the past 18 months and more, the community pharmacy sector has been the most visible and accessible part of primary care and the face-to-face nature of community pharmacy allows patients to develop a professional relationship with their patients ensuring continuity of care.

This is a public consultation which closes on Tuesday 30 November 2021 and CPNI Board will meet on Thursday 9 September 2021 to discuss this further. 

We will be advising contractors and members of the public on this issue and will be in contact with more information in due course. 

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF
GERARD GREENE
Chief Executive

Dear Contractor
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued information on new tools that will help organisations protect themselves, others in their sector and the wider Northern Ireland community from the impact of cyber-crime.

Launch of NCSC Scam Website Reporting Service
This new service from the NCSC allows members of the public and local organisations to report suspicious websites be they linked to fake news, investment schemes or sites looking to capture personal or corporate information.  Once received, the NCSC will analyse the website and if found to be malicious, look to take action to protect others from falling victim to the same scam. details can be found HERE.

Helping Microsoft Office365 users to report phishing
Many Corporate and Business users of Office365 will be familiar with Microsoft’s one click ‘Report Phishing’ service that can be installed on user accounts.  Thanks to recently released guidance from the NCSC for IT administrators, those using the ‘Report Phishing’ tool can now configure the add-in to report phishing emails direct to the NCSC Suspicious Email Reporting Service.  This simple to implement tool can help users quickly report emails they suspect to be phishing to a service which, as of 30 June 2021, had received over 6,500,000 reports and taken action against some 50,500 scams and 97,000 URLs.  Details can be found HERE.

ACTION

Contractors are advised to:

  1. Note the additional tools which are now available to help combat cyber-crime.

Contractors are reminded that the storage and back up of patient sensitive data and any amendments to your systems should only be carried out in line with advice from your IT or email supplier, PMR system provider and in line with Data Protection legislation.

CPNI colleagues will continue to keep you updated on these matters.

Kind regards – Mike

SENT ON BEHALF OF
PROF. MIKE MAWHINNEY
Head of Regulatory Affairs

This update contains important information for community pharmacy teams, including details of the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

BSO ALERTS 

CPNI ALERTS 

HSCB ALERTS 

Please bring this to the attention of your pharmacy team(s).
Pharmacy team(s) can keep updated via CPNI’s Contractor Calendar or Contractor Emails. Or report medicine shortages or pricing issues via the CPNI’s Medicine Shortage Reporter.

Kind regards

SENT ON BEHALF OF 
DR. GARETH C. GILVARY
Governance & Support Pharmacist