MINUTES

An Open meeting of Bedfordshire Local Pharmaceutical Committee was held on Thursday 29th September 2016 at The Rufus Centre, Steppingley Road, Flitwick, MK45 1AU.

Present: Members

Coll Michaels (Chair)

Samir Patel (Vice Chair)

Stephen Clarke

Lakhminder Flora

Amit Lakhani

Nazlin Meghji

Kiran Patel

Pinesh Patel

Carol Rose

Mahesh Shah

Rupal Sagoo

Joseph Taple

Bedfordshire LPC Office

Gerald Zeidman (Chief Officer)

Ethel Shaw (PA to Chief Officer)

Bedfordshire LPC Treasurer

Paul Fearon

Guests

Jane Bray, Pharmacy Contracts Manager, Hertfordshire & South Midlands, Area Team

Dr Alvin Low, Clinical Chair, Beds CCG

Fiona Garnett, Assistant Director & Head of Medicines Management, Beds CCG

Patsy Richards, Senior Manager, Public Health, Luton

Sarah Wetherell, Public Health Co-ordinator – Business, Bedford Borough Council

Kaylie See, Interface Pharmacist – Complex Care, L&D Hospital

Nicola Tweed, Lead Nurse, Luton Drug Service

Steve Clark, Volunteer, Healthwatch, Bedford Borough

No.

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Agenda Item

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Action

974
975 / Welcome by Chair
The Chair welcomed members and guests to the meeting.
Apologies for Absence
Carl Raybold, Beds & Herts LMC Ltd
Healthwatch, Central Bedfordshire
Healthwatch, Luton
Zara Mehra, CPPE Regional Lead
Tess Dawoud, Medicine Optimisation, LCCG
Alison Ryan, Luton CCG
976
977
978
979 / Declarations of Interest
None declared
Gerald stated that LPC members’ Declaration of Interests were available for viewing at the meeting.
Minutes Approved
Patsy Richards asked for an amendment to the minutes relating to Tim McGregor’s update. The amended wording will be sent to the LPC office.
The committee then approved the Open meeting minutes from 22nd June as proposed by Samir Patel and seconded by Steve Clarke.
Matters Arising from the Open minutes of the LPC meeting held on 22nd June 2016
823 – A meeting between Beds LPC and Central Bedfordshire Healthwatch is still to be set up. Central Beds HW has experienced personnel changes, which has further delayed the setting up of this meeting.
937 – Meeting with Tim Hedges at Public Health Luton to be arranged.
954 – The meeting with Beds CCG took place on 7th July and will be reported later in the meeting.
966 – The proposed protected learning for community pharmacists has yet to be arranged.
A meeting between BedsLPC and Alison Ryan took place on Monday 26th September.
965 – The list of 55 pharmacies that had not completed the short on-line CPAF questionnaire was shared with BedsLPC by Jane Bray. All pharmacies were contacted by the Beds LPC office and 100% completion was achieved.
967 – The meeting between L&D hospital project team and community
pharmacy representatives in relation to the Refer to Pharmacy project has been postponed for now due to revised timescales for the project. Refer to Kaylie’s update later in the meeting.
It was noted that two Bedfordshire and one Luton pharmacy contractors have not completed the compulsory Summary Care Records (SCR) training.
968 – An update regarding the INR Anti-coagulation procurement will be given later in the meeting.
969 – The Healthwatch Luton report relating to managed prescription repeats has been shared with BedsLPC.
The Luton Health & Social Care Scrutiny Committee meeting was delayed from the July date until 5th October 2016. A report from Luton CCG and Healthwatch will be presented at the meeting. The LPC will be attending the meeting.
970 – A meeting between Luton Public Health and Beds LPC representatives is still to be arranged.
NHS England – Midlands & East update
Jane Bray gave the update
Community Pharmacy Assurance Framework (CPAF)
The feedback from the new on-line process has been relatively positive and gives pharmacies an instant health check from the short on-line CPAF. All BedsLPC pharmacies completed June’s on-line CPAF short questionnaire.
Fourteen Bedfordshire pharmacies will be asked to complete the full CPAF using the criteria on the PSNC website. As before, pharmacies that complete the full CPAF will be asked by NHS England to either clarify any queries arising from the full CPAF response or NHS England will arrange a monitoring visit during the first half of 2017. In a very few instances, visits may take place in December.
Community Pharmacy NHS Flu Advanced Service
According to the data recorded on PharmOutcomes as of 25th September 2016, 84 pharmacies across Bedfordshire & Luton have administered 1,899 NHS Flu Vaccinations to patients who meet the eligibility criteria.
See table for breakdown:
ELIGIBILITY / Cumulative Flu Vaccinations Administered up to 25/09/16
65 years and over / 1349
Carer / 35
Chronic heart disease / 42
Chronic kidney disease / 6
Chronic liver disease / 2
Chronic neurological disease / 18
Chronic respiratory disease / 182
Diabetes / 184
Household contact of immunocompromised individual / 21
Immunosuppression / 44
Person in long-stay residential care home / 1
Pregnant woman / 15
Grand Total / 1899
The committee noted that one GP practice has been asking for the batch numbers and expiry dates of flu vaccines. Community pharmacies are not required to provide this information.
PharmOutcomes still do not have nhs.net email addresses for all Bedfordshire GP practices.
The Practitioner Services Unit (PSU) at Charter House, Welwyn Garden City is being outsourced to Capita on 14th October 2016.
The Chair thanked Jane for her update. / On-going
On-going
Closed
On-going
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On-going
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On-going
On-going

980

981
/ Bedfordshire Public Health update
Sarah Wetherell gave the update
Bedfordshire and Luton public health teams have agreed to support the Healthy Living Pharmacy (HLP) initiative across Bedfordshire working with pharmacy contractors and the LPC to assist with accreditation.
Dynamic Purchasing System
At the time of the meeting only 37% of community pharmacies had applied to use the system compared to 96% of GP practices.
A second phase is planned. It will target pharmacy directly with public health offering support.
The system is due to go live during the week commencing 3rd October and an email will be sent by public health alerting pharmacies and offering assistance.
Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA)
The updated PNA is required to be published on 1st April 2018 with project planning commencing in November or December 2016. Steering groups will be set up from January 2017.
BedsLPC will be part of the steering groups for the two Bedford PNAs.
Sexual Health Service
A new integrated service will commence on 1st November 2016.
Stoptober
The Stoptober campaign will run again in October. Packs will be sent to every pharmacy from Public Health England.
Stay Well Campaign
This campaign will run through November and December and will focus on self-care. Sarah is leading for Bedfordshire. Community pharmacy will be the first point of contact.
ACTION: Sarah will send the LPC an email with details regarding the Stay Well Campaign.
The Chair thanked Sarah for her update.
Luton Public Health update
Patsy Richards gave the update.
Patsy acknowledged that recently payments to community pharmacists have been an issue. She explained that it was due to changes to a new invoice system. Payment arrears are being addressed and all pharmacists will receive their payments.
LPC members expressed their concern regarding delayed payments and looked forward to the issue being resolved shortly.
The Luton Public health contact for payments was Fiona Foster but she left the post four months ago. All payment requests must still go to the Luton Borough Council email address marked for the attention of Patsy or Nazeema Tambe. Any issues can be sent to Patsy.
Contracts
All outstanding Public Health contracts must be signed and sent to Patsy.
Drug & Alcohol
This service is currently out to tender and the new provider will be identified before December 2016, with the new contract in place by 1st April 2017. The new provider will be encouraged to make introductory
contact with BedsLPC by March 2017.
ACTION: BedsLPC to arrange a meeting with Luton Public Health and the new Drug and Alcohol provider.
Patsy has met with Zara Mehra (CPPE) to discuss and arrange training events for community pharmacists. The discussions will be shared with BedsLPC.
ACTION: A meeting with Luton PH and BedsLPC is to be arranged to discuss future training events and community pharmacy commissioned services.
The Chair thanked Patsy for her update. / SW
GZ/SP
BedsLPC/
PR
982 / Luton Supervised Consumption SLA update
Nicola Tweed gave the update
A draft copy of the SLA has been circulated to the BedsLPC committee and a copy was also sent to contractors by Nicola for their feedback.
It was noted that the Luton Drug Service did not operate 24 hours a day with particular problems being experienced over the weekend.
Locum accreditation for supervised consumption by CPPE is a possibility as gaps in their knowledge have been identified.
It is being proposed that pharmacy Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) should be standardised and it was agreed that the service would work with BedsLPC to ensure that pharmacists’ considerable experience was factored in. BedsLPC pointed out that templates are already in existence and should be utilised.
ACTION: Coll Michaels to send Nicola SOP templates from the NPA
Sam pointed out that the Substance Misuse SLA was out of date. The current version is 2012. He asked for more practical experience to be factored into any new training and pointed out that CPPE offer up-to-date packages that could be considered.
Gerald enquired if the geographical spread of contractors offering the service was adequate. Nicola felt that it was, but acknowledged that the out-of-hour’s service needs addressing.
The Chair thanked Nicola for her update.
Nicola left the meeting. / CM
983 / Refer to Pharmacy
Kaylie See gave the update.
The software company originally identified to deliver the project are no longer able to commit to the project within this financial year. As a result, it is now currently on hold.
There are discussions with Luton CCG about making Refer To Pharmacy a two-year project. BedsLPC confirmed that an on-line system was required in order to streamline workload.
Kaylie informed the meeting that unfortunately she will no longer be working on the project as she is leaving her current role at the Luton & Dunstable hospital for a new position at Luton CCG. She will ensure that the new project lead continues to keep BedsLPC informed of project updates.
The Chair thanked Kaylie for her update and wished her well in her new role.
984
985 / Bedford Borough Healthwatch update
This was Steve’s first time attending an LPC meeting as the Bedford Borough Healthwatch representative. His attendance at the meeting was for observation purposes on this occasion.
It was agreed that Steve and Gerald would set up a meeting before the next LPC meeting to introduce him to the role of community pharmacies.
ACTION: Set up meeting with BedsLPC and Bedford Borough Healthwatch.
The Chair thanked Steve for his attendance and welcomed him as the new Bedford Borough Healthwatch representative.
Update on Community Pharmacy services in Bedfordshire and Luton
Gerald gave the update covering the following:
Bedfordshire Value Based Commissioning Consultation
The recommendations to Beds CCG Governing Body were published last week follow an extensive 12-week consultation process which attracted over 1000 responses, many of which were from local clinicians and stakeholders including the LPC.
Bedfordshire CCG had a consultation with the public around the provision of 3 services:
·  gluten-free foods
·  over-the-counter medicines
·  specialist fertility treatment
The evidence base and associated research is complex in all cases and the CCG have taken the decision to defer the decision in order to give the CCG@s Governing Body more time to consider in depth the implications of the recommendations across all three services.
A decision will be taken at the next Beds CCG Governing Body meeting in November.
Bedfordshire public health contracts update
The committee noted that the recent Bedfordshire procurement for anti-coagulation services (INR) for community pharmacists had proved challenging for pharmacies to complete the necessary paperwork due to the complexity of the questions.
LPC members suggested that training for future procurements will assist community pharmacists in completing their bids. Bedfordshire public health agreed to work with the LPC in arranging training.
Luton Health Checks
Live Well Luton has reported that the pharmacy health check contract was renewed in April 2016 with three pharmacies Wheatfield, Blenheim and Avicenna (Hockwell Ring).
Live Well Luton hope to continue the pharmacy health check project and will be running a new training date in November to enable more staff members to be trained to deliver the check. This will help the pharmacies to increase the number of health checks delivered as staffing has been a barrier in recent months for some.
Overall since the project began last year the pharmacies have completed a total of 128 health checks.
Live Well Luton is hoping to engage with more Luton pharmacies over the coming months to increase awareness of the NHS Health Check especially with pharmacies that are looking to become Healthy Living Pharmacies. / BedsLPC/
SC
986
987 / To Note:
·  Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE) update
The update was circulated to all meeting attendees ahead of the meeting as Zara was unable to attend the meeting on this occasion.
Healthy Living Pharmacy update
Sam and Gerald gave the update.
Since June’s LPC meeting there has been a change of pharmacy minister. Alistair Burt MP, who attended the HLP launch on 20th June, has been replaced by David Mowatt MP.
BedsLPC have produced a support pack to accompany the HLP Level 1 Quality Criteria self-assessment published by Public Health England. The support pack will be given to attendees at the contractor event scheduled to take place later in the evening, after the LPC meetings and AGM.
It was noted that LPCs are no longer the accreditors for the new HLP self-assessment process. A national body will be appointed in due course.
ACTION: Set up a meeting between BedsLPC, Luton PH & Beds PH to discuss way forward for HLP. / BedsLPC/
SW & PR
988 / Luton Dementia update
Gerald and Ethel gave the update.
Dementia Action Alliance update
BedsLPC has now registered through the Dementia Alliance website as an organisation that supports dementia within the local area. The LPC has submitted an action plan to promote being Dementia Friendly amongst community pharmacies and as such will encourage pharmacists and their staff to sign up to being Dementia Friends.