What's New?

Summary of Changes

Pharmacy Services release 7.0 contains the following new features and improvements:

Pharmacy First

• Pharmacy First - Pharmacy First is a new advanced service which replaces the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS). Pharmacy First Referrals include seven new clinical pathways as part of the Minor Illness/Clinical Pathways service:

   

  Welcome to Pharmacy First (2:23)

  See Pharmacy First (Formerly CPCS) for details.

• Minor Illness/Clinical Pathways - This service has been expanded to enable community pharmacy to complete episodes of care for seven common conditions following specific clinical pathways. This enables the management of common infections through offering self-care, safety-netting advice and, if appropriate, supplying specific over the counter (OTC) and prescription only medicines (POM) via Clinical Protocol and Patient Group Directions (PGDs). Patients may access this service either by referral or when they are identified as suitable by the pharmacist:

  

  The seven conditions are:

  • Acute Otitis Media

  • Impetigo

  • Infected insect bites

  • Shingles

  • Sinusitis

  • Sore throat

  • Uncomplicated urinary tract infections

  See Minor Illness/Clinical Pathways Consultation for details.

Summary of Changes

Pharmacy Services release 6.0 contains the following new features and improvements:

All Services

• PDS Verification - You can now verify a patient's details through the Patient Demographic Service (PDS) from all Pharmacy Services:

  

Contraception Service

The following improvements have been made to the Contraception Service:

• Initiate Oral Contraception - We have updated the Contraception Service allowing clinicians to initiate supplies of oral contraception to their patients:

  

• Product Supply Type - You can now select from one of the following product supply types when adding a Contraception product:

  

  • Patient Group Direction (PGD)

  • Independent Prescriber (Rx)

• Outcomes - You are now required to enter a clinical summary of the Contraception Service consultation with your patient in the Outcomes section:

  

New Medicine Service (NMS)

• MYS Portal - NHS Reporting - NMS statistics are now automatically submitted to the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal for NHS reporting purposes.

  Note - The MYS integration for NMS does not currently support automated claims for payment. You are still required to manually enter your NMS totals each month on your FP34 submission.

Early Adopter Phase (EAP)

PFS Referrals

• New Design - The two Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) services, Minor Illness/Clinical Pathways and Urgent Medicines Supply have been redesigned matching the new style of Pharmacy Services.

  See Minor Illness/Clinical Pathways Consultation and Urgent Medicine Supply Consultation for details.

Pharmacy Services release 5.5 contains background and stabilisation changes, but does not change the look or how you use Pharmacy Services.

We are working hard to improve the infrastructure and security of Pharmacy Services and are continuing to work alongside the NHS to meet the requirements of the Primary Care Access Recovery Plan. This will introduce new features such as read/write access to patient GP records, integrated GP Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) referrals and the new Common Conditions Service.

Pharmacy Services release 5.4 contains the following new features and improvements:

Hypertension Case-Finding Service

• Consultation Session - The following improvements have been made to the Consultation Session:

  • Clinic Blood Pressure Check - Acute Symptoms - If a patient is identified with Very High Blood Pressure, you are now prompted to check for acute symptoms such as headache, palpitations, new onset confusion, chest pain, signs of heart failure or acute kidney injury:

    

    See Hypertension - Very High Blood Pressure for details.

  • Method of Entry - You can now add a Referrer case reference when selecting one of the following method of entry options:

    

    • Referred by GP practice

    • Referred by COVID vaccination centre

    • Referred by optician

    • Referred by dentist

  See Hypertension Consultation for more details.

• Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitor (ABPM) Fitting Advice - The patient advice when fitting an ABPM device is now updated to include the following text 'Provide instructions on what to do when a reading is being recorded and set up to record two measurements per hour taken during the person’s usual waking hours (for example between 08:00 and 22:00)':

  

  See Hypertension - ABPM Fitting for details.

• ABPM Follow Up Session - The following improvements have been made to the ABPM Follow Up Session:

  • Add ABPM Readings Screen - On the ABPM Follow Up session, you now only need to enter an Average ABPM Reading over at least seven hours. The requirement to add average daytime and night-time ABPM readings is removed:

    

  • ABPM Readings Chart - An additional category of Very High Blood Pressure has been added to the ABPM Readings chart:

    

  • ABPM Very High Blood Pressure - Acute Symptoms - If a patient is identified with Very High Blood Pressure or Stage 2 Hypertension, you are now prompted to check for acute symptoms. If the patient reports acute symptoms, a message displays advising you to give the patient a record of their results and urgently refer them to their local A&E, via 999, where necessary:

    

  • ABPM Stage 2 Hypertension - Acute Symptoms - If a patient is identified with Stage 2 Hypertension, you are now prompted to check for acute symptoms. If the patient reports acute symptoms, they should be advised to see their registered GP practice or another healthcare within 7 days and you should call the GP during opening hours and while the patient is still in the pharmacy:

    

  See Hypertension - ABPM Follow Up for details.

• Date & Time of Referral - When you are advised to refer a patient to their registered GP practice or another healthcare provider, you must now enter a date and time a patient was referred:

  

  Training Tip - The date and time of the referral are recorded on the summary of the Hypertension Case-Finding Service episode. See Viewing Hypertension Case Finding Services for details.
  See Hypertension - ABPM Follow Up for details.

Flu Vaccination

• Daily Extract - A daily Flu Vaccination extract now runs replacing the need for you to send a GP Notification via NHS Mail at the end of each Flu Vaccination service.

Pharmacy Services release 5.3 contains the following new features and improvements:

Hypertension Case-Finding Service

• MYS Portal - We have undertaken background development to ensure Hypertension Case-Finding Service claims can be automatically submitted to the Manage Your Service (MYS) Portal from 1st September 2023.

• Method of Entry - You can now select from the following extra method of entry options:

  • Patient self referral

  • Referred by COVID vaccination centre

  • Referred by optician

  • Referred by dentist

  See Hypertension Consultation for more details.

• Clinician Details - The Pharmacist Details section is now named Clinician Details and has been moved to the bottom of the Hypertension Case-Finding Service screens. You can now also select the clinician role as either a Pharmacist or a Pharmacist Technician:

  

• Healthy Living Advice - The Healthy Living Advice section is now mandatory when recording a Normal Blood Pressure rating in either the initial Consultation session, or the ABPM Follow Up session:

  

  Weight management has been removed from the Healthy Living Advice section.

  See Hypertension - Normal Blood Pressure and Hypertension - ABPM Follow Up for details.

• Pulse Reading - You must now enter a pulse reading on the Add Blood Pressure Readings screen:

  

  See Hypertension Consultation for details.

• ABPM Pulse Reading - You must now enter an average pulse reading on the Add ABPM Readings screen when completing an ABPM Follow Up session:

  

  See Hypertension - ABPM Follow Up for details.

• Irregular Pulse Detected - The pulse reading value now displays on the tile when detecting an irregular pulse in the initial Consultation session:

  

  See Hypertension - Irregular Pulse for details.

Pharmacy Services release 5.2 contains the following new feature:

New Medicine Service (NMS)

• NMS Completed - The Completed Episodes screen now provides a summary of completed claimable episodes from the last and current month:

  

  See Viewing NMS Episodes for more details.

This release also includes some background fixes and improvements to Pharmacy Services.

Pharmacy Services release 5.1 contains the following new features and improvements:

Hypertension Case-Finding Service

• The Hypertension Case-Finding Service allows you to identify people over the age of 40 who have previously not been diagnosed with hypertension, and to refer those with suspected hypertension for appropriate management:

  

  See Hypertension Case Finding Service for details.

PFS Referrals and Contraception Service

• Renaming SCR to NCRS - References to Summary Care Record (SCR) in the PFS Referrals and ContraceptionServices screens now refer to National Care Records Service (NCRS):

  

  See Pharmacy First (Formerly CPCS) and Contraception Service for details.

Pharmacy Services release 5.0 contains the following new features and improvements:

All Services

• PDS Retrieval - Telephone number - A Personal Demographics Service (PDS) lookup is now performed to automatically retrieve a patient's telephone number if it is missing from their record.

NMS, Flu Vaccination & Contraception Services

• Adding a New Patient - A Personal Demographics Service (PDS) lookup is now performed to automatically retrieve the patient's details when adding a new patient in Pharmacy Services. If a PDS lookup is not successful, a patient's NHS number cannot be verified and does not display on the patient banner:

  

New Medicine Service (NMS)

• Referred Back to the Prescriber - GP Feedback Form - When adding a medication review to either the NMS Intervention or Follow Up session, and referring the patient back to the prescriber:

  • The Patient's Registered GP Details section now displays:

    

  • A GP Feedback Form is also automatically sent to the patient's registered GP by NHSMail when completing the session:

    

  See NMS Session 2 - Intervention and NMS Session 3 - Follow Up for details.

• NMS Summary screen - Next Session - The appointment details of the next session now display on the summary screen session tile. If required, you can edit the appointment date and time from the session tile:

  

  See NMS Session 1 - Engagement or NMS Session 2 - Intervention for more information.

This release also includes some background fixes and improvements to Pharmacy Services.

Pharmacy Services release 4.0 contains the following new features and improvements:

All Services

• Side Navigation Bar - We have redesigned the Side Navigation Bar making it easier to navigate services, access User Settings and log out of Pharmacy Services:

  

  Training Tip - NEW highlights new services on your Side Navigation Bar.
  See Navigating the Dashboard and User Settings for more details.

Contraception Service

• The Contraception service allows you to record the details of oral contraceptive products and prescriptions provided to patients by your pharmacy:

  

  Important - The Contraception service is available for all pharmacies to use from 24 April 2023.
  See Contraception Service for more details.

• Contraception Service - GP Notification - When completing a Contraception service, a GP notification is now sent automatically via email to the patient's GP practice if the patient has consented to share information with their GP Practice:

  

  See Completing a Contraception Service for more information.

• MYS Portal - Contraception service claims are now automatically submitted to the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal.

New Medicine Service (NMS)

• Method of Consultation - Telephone - You must now select a Pharmacist Location when recording that the Intervention or Follow Up session was delivered by telephone:

  

  See NMS Session 2 - Intervention or NMS Session 3 - Follow Up for more information.

This release also includes some background fixes and improvements to Pharmacy Services.

Pharmacy Services release 3.3 contains the following new features:

NMS and Flu Vaccination Services

• PDS Retrieval - GP Details - When a patient has a verified NHS number but is missing their GP Details in Pharmacy Manager, a Personal Demographics Service (PDS) retrieval automatically populates the patient's GP Details (if available) in Pharmacy Services when starting a new NMS or Flu Vaccination service.

New Medicine Service (NMS)

• Reviewing Medication - Character Limit - The Additional Notes and Describe other action free text entry now allows up to 500 characters:

  

Early Adopter Phase (EAP)

Contraception Service

• The Contraception service allows you to record the details of oral contraceptive products and prescriptions provided to patients by your pharmacy:

  

  See Contraception Service for more details.

Pharmacy Services release 3.2 contains the following new features and improvements:

PFS Referrals

• Manual Referral - PDS Retrieval - If you have the patient's Date of Birth and NHS Number when you are creating a manual referral, you can now populate the patient's details from the Personal Demographics Service (PDS):

  

  See Creating a Manual Pharmacy First Referral for more information.

New Medicine Service (NMS)

• Duplicate Medication - A message now displays advising the medicine has already been chosen, if you attempt to add duplicate medications to an NMS at the Engagement phase:

  

  See NMS Session 1 - Engagement for more information.

NMS and Flu Vaccination Services

• Dispensing History - You can now view a patient's Pharmacy Manager dispensing history from the Patient Details section of an NMS or Flu Vaccination episode:

  

  Select DISPENSING HISTORY to display the Dispensing History screen:

  

  Training Tip - Up to six months of a patient's Pharmacy Manager dispensing data displays.

All Services

• Analytical Cookies - Anonymised analytical data is now gathered and used to improve Pharmacy Services. You will be prompted to accept the terms before you can use Pharmacy Services:

  

  Note - You are only prompted to accept the terms once, unless you use a different internet browser or clear the browser's cookies.
  See Hotjar Support for more information about Hotjar and how it works.